海底两万里 第2期 第1章 飞走的暗礁(2)

　　If it was a cetacean, it exceeded in bulk any whale previously classified by science.

　　如果这东西是鲸鱼类动物，那么它的体积：是大大超过了生物学家曾经加以分类的鲸鱼。

　　No naturalist, neither Cuvier nor Lacépède, neither Professor Dumeril nor Professor de Quatrefages, would have accepted the existence of such a monster sight unseen-- specifically, unseen by their own scientific eyes.

　　居维埃拉色别德、杜梅里、卡特法日，这些生物学家一一除非看见过，也就是说，除非这些科学家本人的眼睛看见过—是不承认有这样一种怪物存在的。

　　Striking an average of observations taken at different times-rejecting those timid estimates that gave the object a length of 200 feet,

　　把多次观察的结果折中一下来看———方面丢开那些过低的估计，即这个东西只有二百英尺长，

　　and ignoring those exaggerated views that saw it as a mile wide and three long

　　同时也不接受过于夸张的言论，即它有一英里。宽三英里长。

　　you could still assert that this phenomenal creature greatly exceeded the dimensions of anything then known to ichthyologists, if it existed at all.

　　我们可以肯定他说，这个奇怪的生物，如果真是存在的话，它的体积是大大超过鱼类学家所承认的体积的。

　　Now then, it did exist, this was an undeniable fact; and since the human mind dotes on objects of wonder,

　　这东西既然存在，而事实本身又是不可否认的，那么，由于人类好奇的心理，

　　you can understand the worldwide excitement caused by this unearthly apparition. As forrelegating it to the realm of fiction, that charge had to be dropped.

　　我们就不难理解这个怪物的出现会在全世界引起怎样的骚动。至于说这是荒唐无稽之谈，那是决不会有人同意的。

　　In essence, on July 20, 1866, the steamer Governor Higginson, from the Calcutta & Burnach Steam Navigation Co., encountered this moving mass five miles off the eastern shores of Australia.

　　因为，1866年7月20日，加尔各答一布纳希汽船公司的喜金孙总督号，在澳大利亚海岸东边五英里，碰见了这个游动的巨大物体。

　　Captain Baker at first thought he was in the presence of an unknown reef; he was even about to fix its exact position when two waterspouts shot out of this inexplicable object and sprang hissing into the air some 150 feet.

　　巴克船长起初还以为这是没有人知道的、暗礁，他正要测定它的位置的时候，突然这个不可解释的物体喷出两道水柱，哗的一声射到空中一百五十英尺高。

　　So, unless this reef was subject to the intermittent eruptions of a geyser, the Governor Higginson had fair and honest dealings with some aquatic mammal, until then unknown, that could spurt from its blowholes waterspouts mixed with air and steam.

　　这么说，除非这座暗礁上边有间歇喷泉，不然的话，喜金孙总督号面前的东西，就是还没有人知道的一种海中哺乳类动物，它还从鼻孔中喷出有气泡的水柱呢。