英语听书《白鲸记》第876期

Comparing the humped herds of whales with the humped herds of buffalo, which, not forty years ago, overspread by tens of thousands the prairies of Illinois and Missouri, and shook their iron manes and scowled with their thunder-clotted brows upon the sites of populous river-capitals, where now the polite broker sells you land at a dollar an inch; in such a comparison an irresistible argument would seem furnished, to show that the hunted whale cannot now escape speedy extinction.

再把这种长着背峰的鲸群跟那长着背峰的野牛群比较一番吧，这些野牛群，三四十年前，成千成万地曼衍在伊利诺斯和密苏里（伊利诺斯和密苏里——美国两个州名。）的大草原上，在如今人口稠密的近河都市的所在地上，晃起铁丝似的鬃毛，摇摆起密布雷电似的嘴脸，可是，现在这些地方的土地，那些颇为客气的掮客却要卖你一块钱一英寸了；这样一比，似乎就得出了一个无可抗辩的论据，足以证明出这些被猎击的大鲸，现在是逃不了要迅速灭种的命运了。

But you must look at this matter in every light. Though so short a period ago—not a good lifetime—the census of the buffalo in Illinois exceeded the census of men now in London, and though at the present day not one horn or hoof of them remains in all that region; and though the cause of this wondrous extermination was the spear of man; yet the far different nature of the whale-hunt peremptorily forbids so inglorious an end to the Leviathan. Forty men in one ship hunting the Sperm Whales for forty-eight months think they have done extremely well, and thank God, if at last they carry home the oil of forty fish. Whereas, in the days of the old Canadian and Indian hunters and trappers of the West, when the far west (in whose sunset suns still rise) was a wilderness and a virgin, the same number of moccasined men, for the same number of months, mounted on horse instead of sailing in ships, would have slain not forty, but forty thousand and more buffaloes; a fact that, if need were, could be statistically stated.

可是，你必须从各方面来详究这个问题。虽然在以前很短的一段期间——还不及长寿人的一生——伊利诺斯的野牛数目，就超过了现在伦敦的人口，虽然到了现在，在那个地区已经找不出它们的一只角或者一只蹄；虽然这种神速的灭种主要是人类的刀枪所造成的；然而，猎击大鲸却具有极其不同的方法，因而有决定性地使得大鲸不会获致这样一种不光荣的结果。一艘有四十个水手的船，猎击了四十八个月的抹香鲸后，就算他们的成绩干得非常不错，而且谢天谢地，就算他们最后能够把四十条鲸的油料带回家来。然而，从前那些西部的加拿大和印第安猎户以及设陷阱者，在当时极西的地方（在那些地方沉落的太阳却还在照耀着）正是一片蛮荒的处女地，比如说，以同样数目的、穿着鹿皮靴的猎手，也去干同样数目的月份，不是坐船而是骑马，那他们所杀戮的野牛数目，一定不是四十，而是四万，或者比四万还要多；这种事实，如其需要的话，还可以提出统计数字来加以说明。

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