英语听书《白鲸记》第375期

Among the fishermen, he is indiscriminatelydesignated by all the following titles: The Whale;the Greenland Whale; the Black Whale; the GreatWhale; the True Whale; the Right Whale. There is adeal of obscurity concerning the Identity of thespecies thus multitudinously baptized. What then isthe whale, which I include in the second species ofmy Folios? It is the Great Mysticetus of the Englishnaturalists; the Greenland Whale of the EnglishWhalemen; the Baliene Ordinaire of the Frenchwhalemen; the Growlands Walfish of the Swedes. Itis the whale which for more than two centuries past has been hunted by the Dutch and Englishin the Arctic seas; it is the whale which the American fishermen have long pursued in theIndian ocean, on the Brazil Banks, on the Nor' West Coast, and various other parts of the world,designated by them Right Whale Cruising Grounds.

在捕鲸者中,它是毫无差别地被称为下列这许多名称的:鲸;格陵兰鲸;黑鲸;大鲸;真鲸;露脊鲸。名目这么繁多,对于这种鲸的身份,就未免很不明确了。那么,我把它包括在我的对开型的第二类的这种鲸,究竟是一种什么鲸呢?这就是英国的博物学家们所称的大须类鲸;英国的捕鲸者称为格陵兰鲸;法国的捕鲸者称为巴利安。奥第奈尔;瑞典人称为格罗兰。娃鱼的一种鲸。这就是过去二百多年来,荷兰和英国的捕鲸者在北极海上所追捕的一种鲸;这就是美国的捕鲸者在印度洋,在巴西沿海,在西北沿海一带以及其它那些被称为"露脊鲸巡游场"的世界各处所长期猎逐的一种鲸。

Some pretend to see a difference between the Greenland whale of the English and the rightwhale of the Americans. But they precisely agree in all their grand features; nor has there yetbeen presented a single determinate fact upon which to ground a radical distinction. It is byendless subdivisions based upon the most inconclusive differences, that some departments ofnatural history become so repellingly intricate. The right whale will be elsewhere treated of atsome length, with reference to elucidating the sperm whale.BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER III. (Fin-Back).

有人想在英国的格陵兰鲸和美国的露脊鲸间找到一种区别来。但是,他们却正好在它们一切大特点上获得一致的意见,而且迄今还提不出一点能起决定作用的事实,来做为这两者间的截然不同的证据。正由于根据这种最不得要领的差别而来的无穷无尽的细分,这才把博物学史的若干部门弄得这样纠缠不清。关于露脊鲸的问题,将在阐明抹香鲸的过程中,略为附带论及。第一篇(对开型)　第三章(脊鳍鲸)