英语听书《白鲸记》第878期

And as upon the invasion of their valleys, the frosty Swiss have retreated to their mountains; so, hunted from the savannas and glades of the middle seas, the whale-bone whales can at last resort to their Polar citadels, and ping under the ultimate glassy barriers and walls there, come up among icy fields and floes! and in a charmed circle of everlasting December, bid defiance to all pursuit from man.

正如冷淡的瑞士人，一遇外族入侵他们的河谷，便都撤到他们的大山上去一般，因此，这些须鲸在那如大草原、林间开阔地带的洋面上被猎击后，它们最后也能够这样前往它们那些北极的城堡，而潜入到最后的草木茂盛的壁垒和城墙下去，又在冰地和浮冰块中冒了出来；它们处在无尽的十二月天的美妙的小天地里，根本不把人类一切追逐放在眼里。

But as perhaps fifty of these whale-bone whales are harpooned for one cachalot, some philosophers of the forecastle have concluded that this positive havoc has already very seriously diminished their battalions. But though for some time past a number of these whales, not less than 13,000, have been annually slain on the nor'west coast by the Americans alone; yet there are considerations which render even this circumstance of little or no account as an opposing argument in this matter.

但是，也许是因为往往要打到五十条这样的须鲸，才能够打到一条抹香鲸的缘故，因此，船头楼上一些哲学家才断定说，这种具有决定意义的打击早已使得鲸这支队伍大大地减少了。虽则不久前，光是美国的捕鲸者，每年在西北线上所捕杀的这种鲸，其数目可就不下于一万三千条；然而，还是有人甚至把它当作一种微不足道的情况，视为不值一驳的。

Natural as it is to be somewhat incredulous concerning the populousness of the more enormous creatures of the globe, yet what shall we say to Harto, the historian of Goa, when he tells us that at one hunting the King of Siam took 4,000 elephants; that in those regions elephants are numerous as droves of cattle in the temperate climes.

世界上那些身躯比较硕大的动物的稠密情况，当然免不了会多少引起怀疑，然而，我们对于那个果阿（果阿——印度马拉巴的沿海地区。）的历史家哈托（哈托——果阿总督的随侍医生，生卒年代不详。）的言论又将怎样看法呢？他说暹罗国王一次行猎就可以打到四千只象；而且还说在那些地方，象只之多，有如温带地方的畜群。

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