THE NAUTILUS didn't change direction. For the time being, then, we had to set aside any hope of returning to European seas. Captain Nemo kept his prow pointing south. Where was he taking us? I was afraid to guess.
诺第留斯号行驶的方向没有改变。所以，再回到欧洲海岸去的所有希望暂时都要抛弃了。尼摩船长仍是把船头指向南方。他带我们到哪里去？我不敢设想。
That day the Nautilus crossed an odd part of the Atlantic Ocean. No one is unaware of the existence of that great warm-water current known by name as the Gulf Stream. After emerging from channels off Florida, it heads toward Spitzbergen. But before entering the Gulf of Mexico near latitude 44 degrees north, this current divides into two arms; its chief arm makes for the shores of Ireland and Norway while the second flexes southward at the level of the Azores; then it hits the coast of Africa, sweeps in a long oval, and returns to the Caribbean Sea.
这一天，诺第留斯号走过了大西洋很新奇的一部分海面。大家知道大西洋中有那名为“漩流”的大暖流存在。暖流从佛罗里达湾出未，向斯勃齐堡湾流去。但在流入墨西哥湾之前，在北纬44度左右，暖流分为两支：主流奔向爱尔兰和挪威海岸，支流弯折向南，与阿棱尔群岛在同一纬度，然后抵达非洲海岸，画一个长长的椭圆形，回到安的列斯群岛。
Now then, this second arm--more accurately, a collar--forms a ring of warm water around a section of cool, tranquil, motionless ocean called the Sargasso Sea. This is an actual lake in the open Atlantic, and the great current's waters take at least three years to circle it.
可是，这条第二支流一一与其说是手臂般的支流，不如说是项圈一般的环流一形成许多暖流圈，把这部分冰冷、平静和不动的大西洋围绕起来，名为萨尔加斯海。这是大西洋中的真正湖沼，大暖流的水要绕这湖一周，非三年的时间不成。
Properly speaking, the Sargasso Sea covers every submerged part of Atlantis. Certain authors have even held that the many weeds strewn over this sea were torn loose from the prairies of that ancient continent. But it's more likely that these grasses, algae, and fucus plants were carried off from the beaches of Europe and America, then taken as far as this zone by the Gulf Stream. This is one of the reasons why Christopher Columbus assumed the existence of a New World. When the ships of that bold investigator arrived in the Sargasso Sea, they had great difficulty navigating in the midst of these weeds, which, much to their crews' dismay, slowed them down to a halt; and they wasted three long weeks crossing this sector.
萨尔加斯海，严格说起来，那海水遮覆了整个广大的大西洋洲。某些作家甚至承认，那些散布在这海面的无数草叶，是从这古代大陆的草地分出来的。情况可能是这样，就是这些草叶植物，昆布、海带和黑角菜之类，是来自欧洲和美洲海岸，被大西洋暖流一直带到这边海中来的。
Such was the region our Nautilus was visiting just then: a genuine prairie, a tightly woven carpet of algae, gulfweed, and bladder wrack so dense and compact a craft's stempost couldn't tear through it without difficulty. Accordingly, not wanting to entangle his propeller in this weed-choked mass, Captain Nemo stayed at a depth some meters below the surface of the waves.
此刻诺第留斯号走的地方就是上面说的这个海，是真正的一片草场，是昆布、海带、黑角菜、热带海葡萄形成的很厚、很密、很紧凑的地毯，船头要费很大力量才能把它冲开。所以，尼摩船长不愿把他的机轮纠缠在这草叶堆里面，他让船在水面下几米深的水层中行驶。
The name Sargasso comes from the Spanish word "sargazo," meaning gulfweed. This gulfweed, the swimming gulfweed or berry carrier, is the chief substance making up this immense shoal. And here's why these water plants collect in this placid Atlantic basin, according to the expert on the subject, Commander Maury, author of The Physical Geography of the Sea.
萨尔加斯这个名字出自西班牙语，意思是海藻。这海藻是浮水藻，或承湾藻，主要构成这广大的草叶海面。根据《地球自然地理》的作者、科学家莫利的意见，这些海产植物为什么在大西洋这一带平静海水中齐集团结起来，理由是这样。
The explanation he gives seems to entail a set of conditions that everybody knows: "Now," Maury says, "if bits of cork or chaff, or any floating substance, be put into a basin, and a circular motion be given to the water, all the light substances will be found crowding together near the center of the pool, where there is the least motion. Just such a basin is the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf Stream, and the Sargasso Sea is the center of the whirl."
他说：“我们可以拿出来的说明，我以为就是从人人都知道的一种经验所得到的结果。把软木塞碎片或其他浮体的碎片放进一盆水中，使盆中的水作圆形的运动，我们就看见那些分散的碎片成群地聚在水面的中心，即最不受激动的部分。在现在我们留意的这个现象中，那盆是大西洋，暖流是圆形的水流，萨尔加斯海是浮体齐来团聚的中心。”
I share Maury's view, and I was able to study the phenomenon in this exclusive setting where ships rarely go. Above us, huddled among the brown weeds, there floated objects originating from all over: tree trunks ripped from the Rocky Mountains or the Andes and sent floating down the Amazon or the Mississippi, numerous pieces of wreckage, remnants of keels or undersides, bulwarks staved in and so weighed down with seashells and barnacles, they couldn't rise to the surface of the ocean. And the passing years will someday bear out Maury's other view that by collecting in this way over the centuries, these substances will be turned to stone by the action of the waters and will then form inexhaustible coalfields. Valuable reserves prepared by farseeing nature for that time when man will have exhausted his mines on the continents.
我赞同莫利的意见，我又可以在这普通船只很难达到的特殊环境中，研究这种现象。在我们头上，浮着从各处漂来的物在这些紫黑色的草叶中间堆积着的，有从安第斯基山脉拔下来、由亚马逊河或密西西比河浮来的大树干，门。无数遇难船的残骸，龙骨或舱底的剩余，破损的船板，上面堆满蛤阶和荷茗儿贝，十分沉重，不可能再浮上洋面来。
In the midst of this hopelessly tangled fabric of weeds and fucus plants, I noted some delightful pink-colored, star-shaped alcyon coral, sea anemone trailing the long tresses of their tentacles, some green, red, and blue jellyfish, and especially those big rhizostome jellyfish that Cuvier described, whose bluish parasols are trimmed with violet festoons.
We spent the whole day of February 22 in the Sargasso Sea, where fish that dote on marine plants and crustaceans find plenty to eat. The next day the ocean resumed its usual appearance.
3月22日整天，船都在萨尔加斯海中行驶，喜欢吃海产植物和介壳类的鱼类，在这里可以找到丰富的食粮。第二天，大西洋又恢复经常看见的面貌了。
From this moment on, for nineteen days from February 23 to March 12, the Nautilus stayed in the middle of the Atlantic, hustling us along at a constant speed of 100 leagues every twenty-four hours. It was obvious that Captain Nemo wanted to carry out his underwater program, and I had no doubt that he intended, after doubling Cape Horn, to return to the Pacific South Seas.
自此以后，从2月23日至3月12日十丸天中，诺第留斯号在大西洋中间，带着我们走的经常速度为每二十四小时，一百里。尼摩船长很显然要完成他海底周游的计划；我并不怀疑他绕过了合恩角后，打算再回到太平洋的南极海来
So Ned Land had good reason to worry. In these wide seas empty of islands, it was no longer feasible to jump ship. Nor did we have any way to counter Captain Nemo's whims. We had no choice but to acquiesce; but if we couldn't attain our end through force or cunning, I liked to think we might achieve it through persuasion. Once this voyage was over, might not Captain Nemo consent to set us free in return for our promise never to reveal his existence? Our word of honor, which we sincerely would have kept. However, this delicate question would have to be negotiated with the captain. But how would he receive our demands for freedom? At the very outset and in no uncertain terms, hadn't he declared that the secret of his life required that we be permanently imprisoned on board the Nautilus? Wouldn't he see my four-month silence as a tacit acceptance of this situation? Would my returning to this subject arouse suspicions that could jeopardize our escape plans, if we had promising circumstances for trying again later on? I weighed all these considerations, turned them over in my mind, submitted them to Conseil, but he was as baffled as I was. In short, although I'm not easily discouraged, I realized that my chances of ever seeing my fellow men again were shrinking by the day, especially at a time when Captain Nemo was recklessly racing toward the south Atlantic!
所以尼德-兰的惧怕是有理由的。在这些海面上，没有岛屿，逃走的企图是不用再想了。要反对尼摩船长的意志，更没有什么方法；唯一的办法就是服从。因为一件不可能从强力或计谋得到的事情，我喜欢想，或者是可以用说服的方法得到的。这次旅行结束后，尼摩船长有我们发誓不泄露他的生活秘密的保证，难道还不让我们自由吗？这是拿名誉来担保的誓言，我们必然遵守。不过这个微妙问题需要跟船长商谈。那我去要求恢复自由，是不是合适，受欢匹呢？他本人在当初不是已正式说过，他的生活的秘密，是需要我们永远禁闭在诺第留斯号船上来得到保证吗？四个月来，我对于这事的沉默，在他看来，不就是我对于自己所处地位的默认吗？又来讨论这个问题，结果恐怕是引起他为疑虑，以致将来有好机会到来，我们要实行逃走计划的时候，岂不更加困难了吗？所有这些理由，在我心中翻来覆去，就是细加较量，慎重考虑，也不能决定，我提出来和康塞尔谈，他跟我一样，很是为难。总之，虽然我不很容易失望：但我明白我重见世人的机会是一天一天减少了，特别是在尼摩船长大胆向大西洋南方奔驰的时候！
During those nineteen days just mentioned, no unique incidents distinguished our voyage. I saw little of the captain. He was at work. In the library I often found books he had left open, especially books on natural history. He had thumbed through my work on the great ocean depths, and the margins were covered with his notes, which sometimes contradicted my theories and formulations. But the captain remained content with this method of refining my work, and he rarely discussed it with me. Sometimes I heard melancholy sounds reverberating from the organ, which he played very expressively, but only at night in the midst of the most secretive darkness, while the Nautilus slumbered in the wilderness of the ocean.
在我上面说的这十丸天期间内，我们旅行中没有发生什么特别意外事件。我很少看见船长。他工作忙。在图书室里面，我时常看见有些书，特别是生物科学的书，他翻开摆在那里。我的关于海底秘密的著作，他翻阅了，在书边上写满批注，有时驳斥我的理论和我的系统。但船长仅只是这样清除我书中的不正确部分，他很少跟我讨论某些问题。有时，我听到大风琴发出抑郁沉闷的声调，他弹奏时，富有表情，不过他单在夜间弹奏，在最秘密的黑暗中间，当诺第留斯号沉睡在荒漠的海洋中间的时候。
During this part of our voyage, we navigated on the surface of the waves for entire days. The sea was nearly deserted. A few sailing ships, laden for the East Indies, were heading toward the Cape of Good Hope. One day we were chased by the longboats of a whaling vessel, which undoubtedly viewed us as some enormous baleen whale of great value. But Captain Nemo didn't want these gallant gentlemen wasting their time and energy, so he ended the hunt by diving beneath the waters. This incident seemed to fascinate Ned Land intensely. I'm sure the Canadian was sorry that these fishermen couldn't harpoon our sheet-iron cetacean and mortally wound it.
在这部分的旅行中，我们整天在水面上航行。海好像是被人造弃了的一样。只有几艘帆船，运货物到印度，向好望角驶去。一天，我们被一只捕鲸船的小艇追逐，他们一定认为我们的船是价值很大的巨大鲸鱼。但尼摩船长不愿使那些勇敢的打鱼人白费时间和气力，他叫船潜入水中，结束了他们的追逐。这个意外事件使尼德-兰发生浓厚兴趣。我想，加拿大人对我们这条钢板鲸鱼没有被打鱼人的鱼叉叉死，心中一定觉得很可惜，我想我大概没有想错。
During this period the fish Conseil and I observed differed little from those we had already studied in other latitudes. Chief among them were specimens of that dreadful cartilaginous genus that's divided into three subgenera numbering at least thirty-two species: striped sharks five meters long, the head squat and wider than the body, the caudal fin curved, the back with seven big, black, parallel lines running lengthwise; then perlon sharks, ash gray, pierced with seven gill openings, furnished with a single dorsal fin placed almost exactly in the middle of the body.
康塞尔和我在这个期间所观察到的鱼类，跟我门在别的纬度下研究过的，并没有多大差别。主要是那种可怕的软骨鱼属中的一些鱼，它们分为三个亚属，一共不下三十二带条纹的鲛鱼，五米长，扁扁的头比身躯还大，尾鳍作圆形，背上有七条平行斜下的黑色大带：其次是珠子鲛鱼，灰色，鳃间穿有七个孔，单有一个脊鳍，长在身上中间部份。
Some big dogfish also passed by, a voracious species of shark if there ever was one. With some justice, fishermen's yarns aren't to be trusted, but here's what a few of them relate. Inside the corpse of one of these animals there were found a buffalo head and a whole calf; in another, two tuna and a sailor in uniform; in yet another, a soldier with his saber; in another, finally, a horse with its rider. In candor, none of these sounds like divinely inspired truth. But the fact remains that not a single dogfish let itself get caught in the Nautilus's nets, so I can't vouch for their voracity.
又有大海狗走过，从前人们曾把它当做贪食凶恶的海鱼。一队一队漂亮的疯魔海猪，整整有好几天陪着我们。它们五六条一群，像狼在乡间那样。它们的身子长三米，上面黑色，下面红白色，带有很罕见的小斑点。
Schools of elegant, playful dolphin swam alongside for entire days. They went in groups of five or six, hunting in packs like wolves over the countryside; moreover, they're just as voracious as dogfish, if I can believe a certain Copenhagen professor who says that from one dolphin's stomach, he removed thirteen porpoises and fifteen seals. True, it was a killer whale, belonging to the biggest known species, whose length sometimes exceeds twenty-four feet. The family Delphinia numbers ten genera, and the dolphins I saw were akin to the genus Delphinorhynchus, remarkable for an extremely narrow muzzle four times as long as the cranium. Measuring three meters, their bodies were black on top, underneath a pinkish white strewn with small, very scattered spots.
From these seas I'll also mention some unusual specimens of croakers, fish from the order Acanthopterygia, family Scienidea. Some authors-- more artistic than scientific--claim that these fish are melodious singers, that their voices in unison put on concerts unmatched by human choristers. I don't say nay, but to my regret these croakers didn't serenade us as we passed.
Finally, to conclude, Conseil classified a large number of flying fish. Nothing could have made a more unusual sight than the marvelous timing with which dolphins hunt these fish. Whatever the range of its flight, however evasive its trajectory (even up and over the Nautilus), the hapless flying fish always found a dolphin to welcome it with open mouth. These were either flying gurnards or kitelike sea robins, whose lips glowed in the dark, at night scrawling fiery streaks in the air before plunging into the murky waters like so many shooting stars.
这次鱼类观察终于结束，康塞尔把一大群飞鱼加以分类。看海猪猎取这些飞鱼，十分准确，再没有更新奇的了。不管它飞走的路程远近，不管它飞出的曲线多高，就在诺第留斯号上面也扦，不幸的飞鱼老是碰到海豚的张开的嘴，把它迎接过去。这些飞鱼或是海贼飞鱼，或是鸯形鲂鲋，它们的发光的嘴当黑夜间在空中画了一条条的火线后，像流星一样潜入沉黑的水中。
Our navigating continued under these conditions until March 13. That day the Nautilus was put to work in some depth-sounding experiments that fascinated me deeply.
一直到3月6日，我们的船都在这种情形下继续行驶。13日那一天，用诺第留斯号来作探测海底的试验，这使我十分感兴趣。
By then we had fared nearly 13,000 leagues from our starting point in the Pacific high seas. Our position fix placed us in latitude 45 degrees 37' south and longitude 37 degrees 53' west. These were the same waterways where Captain Denham, aboard the Herald, payed out 14,000 meters of sounding line without finding bottom. It was here too that Lieutenant Parker, aboard the American frigate Congress, was unable to reach the underwater soil at 15,149 meters.
我们从太平洋的远洋中出发以来，差不多已经走了一百三千里。测定的方位是我们在南纬45度37分，西经37度53分。就是在这一带海水中，海拉尔号的邓亨船长曾投下一万四千米长的探测器，但没有达到海底。也是在这里。英国二等战舰会议号，海军大尉已尔克投下一万五千米长的探测器，也没有达到海底。
Captain Nemo decided to take his Nautilus down to the lowest depths in order to double-check these different soundings. I got ready to record the results of this experiment. The panels in the lounge opened, and maneuvers began for reaching those strata so prodigiously far removed.
尼摩船长决定送他的船到最深的海底，来检查一下以前多次所得的探测成绩。我准备把这次试验所得的结果完全记录下来。客厅的嵌板都打开了，船开始潜水下降的动作，一直要抵达最深的水层。
It was apparently considered out of the question to dive by filling the ballast tanks. Perhaps they wouldn't sufficiently increase the Nautilus's specific gravity. Moreover, in order to come back up, it would be necessary to expel the excess water, and our pumps might not have been strong enough to overcome the outside pressure.
人们很可以想到，现在不是用装满储水池的方法来潜水下降了。或者这种方法不可能充分增大诺第留斯号的比重，使它一直潜到海底。而且浮上来的时候，要排除多装的水量，怞水机可能没有足够的强力来抵抗外部的压力。
Captain Nemo decided to make for the ocean floor by submerging on an appropriately gradual diagonal with the help of his side fins, which were set at a 45 degrees angle to the Nautilus's waterline. Then the propeller was brought to its maximum speed, and its four blades churned the waves with indescribable violence.
尼摩船长决定这样探测海底，即使用船侧的纵斜机板，使它与诺第留斯号的浮标线成四十五度角，然后沿着一条充分引伸的对角线潜下去。这样安排好后，”推进器开到最大的速度，它的四重机叶猛烈搅打海水，这情景简直难以形容。
Under this powerful thrust the Nautilus's hull quivered like a resonating chord, and the ship sank steadily under the waters. Stationed in the lounge, the captain and I watched the needle swerving swiftly over the pressure gauge. Soon we had gone below the livable zone where most fish reside. Some of these animals can thrive only at the surface of seas or rivers, but a minority can dwell at fairly great depths. Among the latter I observed a species of dogfish called the cow shark that's equipped with six respiratory slits, the telescope fish with its enormous eyes, the armored gurnard with gray thoracic fins plus black pectoral fins and a breastplate protected by pale red slabs of bone, then finally the grenadier, living at a depth of 1,200 meters, by that point tolerating a pressure of 120 atmospheres.
在这强大力量的推送下，诺第留斯号的船壳像一根咚咚震响的绳索一样，全部抖动，很规律地潜入水中．船长和我在客厅中守候，我们眼盯着那移动得很快的压力表的指针。不久就超过了那大部分鱼类可以生活居住的水层。有些鱼类只能生活在海水或河水的上层，其他数量较少的鱼类又时常住在相当深的水中。在后一种鱼类中，我看到六孔海豚，有六个呼吸口，望远镜鱼，有望远镜一般的巨大眼睛，带甲刀板鱼，这鱼有灰色的前胸鳍和黑色的后胸鳍，有淡红色的骨片胸甲保护，最后，榴弹鱼，生活在一千二百米的深处，顶着一百二十度的大气压力。
I asked Captain Nemo if he had observed any fish at more considerable depths.
我问尼摩船长，他是不是曾在更深的水层观察过鱼类。
"Fish? Rarely!" he answered me. "But given the current state of marine science, who are we to presume, what do we really know of these depths?"
他回答我：“鱼类吗？很少很少。但在目前这一阶段人们对于科学又推测到些什么？人们知道了什么？”
"Just this, captain. In going toward the ocean's lower strata, we know that vegetable life disappears more quickly than animal life. We know that moving creatures can still be encountered where water plants no longer grow. We know that oysters and pilgrim scallops live in 2,000 meters of water, and that Admiral McClintock, England's hero of the polar seas, pulled in a live sea star from a depth of 2,500 meters. We know that the crew of the Royal Navy's Bulldog fished up a starfish from 2,620 fathoms, hence from a depth of more than one vertical league. Would you still say, Captain Nemo, that we really know nothing?"
“船长，人们所知道的情形是这样。人们知道，深入到海洋下的最底层，植物比动物更不容易生长，更快地绝迹。人们知道，在还可以碰到一些生物的水层，任何一种海产植物也没有了。人们知道，有生活在二千米水深的肩挂贝，牡蛎类，两极探险英雄麦克-格林托克。曾在北极海中二千五百米深处，采得一个星贝。人们知道，英国皇家海军猛犬号的船员从二千六百二十英尺，即一海里多的深处，采得一个海星。尼摩船长，您或者会对我说，人们实是一无所知吧？”
"No, professor," the captain replied, "I wouldn't be so discourteous. Yet I'll ask you to explain how these creatures can live at such depths?"
“教授，”船长回答，“不，我不能这样不客气，不过，我要问您，您怎样解释这些生物可以在这样深的水层生活呢？”
"I explain it on two grounds," I replied. "In the first place, because vertical currents, which are caused by differences in the water's salinity and density, can produce enough motion to sustain the rudimentary lifestyles of sea lilies and starfish."
“我用两个理由来解释，”我回答，“第一，因为那些上下垂直往来的水流，由海水的不同咸度和不同密度决定，发生一种运动，足以维持海百合和海星一类的原始基本生活。”
"True," the captain put in.
“对。”船长说。
"In the second place, because oxygen is the basis of life, and we know that the amount of oxygen dissolved in salt water increases rather than decreases with depth, that the pressure in these lower strata helps to concentrate their oxygen content."
“其次，因为氧是生命的基础，人们知道，氧溶解在海水中，并不因水深而减少，反因水深而增加，而底下水层的压力又把它压缩了。”
"Oho! We know that, do we?" Captain Nemo replied in a tone of mild surprise. "Well, professor, we have good reason to know it because it's the truth. I might add, in fact, that the air bladders of fish contain more nitrogen than oxygen when these animals are caught at the surface of the water, and conversely, more oxygen than nitrogen when they're pulled up from the lower depths. Which bears out your formulation. But let's continue our observations."
“啊！人们知道这事吗？”尼摩船长回答，语气有点惊异。”那么，教授，人们当然知道，因为这是事实。我还要说，鱼类的缥子，当鱼是在水面上捕得的，里面藏有的氮多于氧，但从水深处捉到它们时就相反，氧多于氮。这也是证明您所说的这一点是对的。现在我们继续做我们的观察
My eyes flew back to the pressure gauge. The instrument indicated a depth of 6,000 meters. Our submergence had been going on for an hour. The Nautilus slid downward on its slanting fins, still sinking. These deserted waters were wonderfully clear, with a transparency impossible to convey. An hour later we were at 13,000 meters-- about three and a quarter vertical leagues--and the ocean floor was nowhere in sight.
我的眼光盯在压力表上面。表指六千米的深处。我们下沉开始以来有一小时了。诺第留斯号跟它的纵斜机板溜下去，老是往下沉。汪洋无物的海水显得十分透明；这种透亮性简直无法形容。再过一小时后，我们到一万三千米，即三里又四分之一深了，但人们还没有感到就要抵达海底。
However, at 14,000 meters I saw blackish peaks rising in the midst of the waters. But these summits could have belonged to mountains as high or even higher than the Himalayas or Mt. Blanc, and the extent of these depths remained incalculable.
但是，到了一万四千米的时候，我看见带黑色的尖顶从海水中间露出来。不过这些尖顶可能是属于跟喜马拉雅山或白山①一样高或更高的山的峰顶，下面的深渊还是深不可测。
Despite the powerful pressures it was undergoing, the Nautilus sank still deeper. I could feel its sheet-iron plates trembling down to their riveted joins; metal bars arched; bulkheads groaned; the lounge windows seemed to be warping inward under the water's pressure. And this whole sturdy mechanism would surely have given way, if, as its captain had said, it weren't capable of resisting like a solid block.
诺第留斯号虽然受到强大压力，但仍然继续下降。我感觉它的钢板在螺旬-衔接的地方都颤动了，“白的方格铁板有些弯起来了，它的中间隔板发出悲鸣了，客厅的玻璃窗受海水的压力好像要凹陷了。如果这架坚固的机器，不像它的船长所说过的，坚硬得像一大块实铁：那它一定早就要垮了。
While grazing these rocky slopes lost under the waters, I still spotted some seashells, tube worms, lively annelid worms from the genus Spirorbis, and certain starfish specimens.
在掠过那些敞在水底下的岩石斜坡的时候，我仍然看到～些介铪类、蛇虫类、活的刺虫类，以及某种海星。
But soon these last representatives of animal life vanished, and three vertical leagues down, the Nautilus passed below the limits of underwater existence just as an air balloon rises above the breathable zones in the sky. We reached a depth of 16,000 meters-- four vertical leagues--and by then the Nautilus's plating was tolerating a pressure of 1,600 atmospheres, in other words, 1,600 kilograms per each square centimeter on its surface!
但不入，动物生活的这些最后代表也不见了，在三里下了面，诺第留斯号就超过了海底生物可以生存的界限了，像气球上升到不可以呼吸的空气外层那样。我们到了一万六千米，四里的深度，诺第留斯号身上这时是顶着一千六百大气压的压力，即它身上每平方厘米顶着一千六百公斤的重量。
"What an experience!" I exclaimed. "Traveling these deep regions where no man has ever ventured before! Look, captain! Look at these magnificent rocks, these uninhabited caves, these last global haunts where life is no longer possible! What unheard-of scenery, and why are we reduced to preserving it only as a memory?"
“多么新奇的地方！”我喊道，“走进这人类从没有到过的最深处来！船长，请看那些宏伟的岩石，那些没有居民的岩洞，那些地球的最深收容所，不可能有生命存在的地方！这是从没有人知道的壮丽凤景，为什么我们只能把它们保存在记忆中呢？”
"Would you like," Captain Nemo asked me, "to bring back more than just a memory?"
“教授，”尼摩船长问我，“您想得出比仅仅放在记忆中更高明的办法吗？”
"What do you mean?"
“您这话的意思是什么呢？”
"I mean that nothing could be easier than taking a photograph of this underwater region!"
“我的意思是说，在这海底深处，拍照是再没有更容易的了！”
Before I had time to express the surprise this new proposition caused me, a camera was carried into the lounge at Captain Nemo's request. The liquid setting, electrically lit, unfolded with perfect clarity through the wide-open panels. No shadows, no blurs, thanks to our artificial light. Not even sunshine could have been better for our purposes. With the thrust of its propeller curbed by the slant of its fins, the Nautilus stood still. The camera was aimed at the scenery on the ocean floor, and in a few seconds we had a perfect negative.
我简直来不及向他表示这新提议使我发生的惊奇，由于尼摩船长的吩咐，立即有一架照相机拿到厅中来。从敞开的嵌板望去，海水周围受电光照耀，显得非常清楚。我们的人工光线没有任何陰暗、任何晕淡不匀的地方。对于这种性质的照相，就是太阳光恐怕也没有这种光线便利；诺第留斯号在它的推进机的力量下，受它纵斜机板斜度的管制，停住不动。照相机于是对准海洋底下的风景拍摄，没有几秒钟，我们就得到了极端清楚的底版。
I attach a print of the positive. In it you can view these primordial rocks that have never seen the light of day, this nether granite that forms the powerful foundation of our globe, the deep caves cut into the stony mass, the outlines of incomparable distinctness whose far edges stand out in black as if from the brush of certain Flemish painters. In the distance is a mountainous horizon, a wondrously undulating line that makes up the background of this landscape. The general effect of these smooth rocks is indescribable: black, polished, without moss or other blemish, carved into strange shapes, sitting firmly on a carpet of sand that sparkled beneath our streams of electric light.
我现在拿出来的是正面的阳版底片。人们在照片上看到那些从来没有受过天上照来的光线的原始基本岩石，那些形成地球的坚强基础的底层花岗石，那些在大石堆中空出来的深幽岩洞，那些清楚得无可比拟的侧影，它们的轮廓作黑色的线条，像某些佛兰蒙画家①的画笔所绘出来的一样。在更远一点的地方，是横在边际的山脉，有一道波纹弯曲的美丽线条，作为这幅风景的底层远景。我不可能描写这一群平滑、黝黑、光泽、没有薛苔、没有斑点的岩石，它削成离奇古怪的形状，并且牢固地矗立在细沙形成的地毯上，沙受曳光的照耀，闪闪发亮。
Meanwhile, his photographic operations over, Captain Nemo told me:
可是，尼摩船长照完了相，对我说：
"Let's go back up, professor. We mustn't push our luck and expose the Nautilus too long to these pressures."
“教授，我们上去吧。不要过久地停留在这个地方，也不要让诺第留斯号过久地顶住这样的压力。”
"Let's go back up!" I replied.
“我们上去。”我回答。
"Hold on tight."
“您好好地站稳。”
Before I had time to realize why the captain made this recommendation, I was hurled to the carpet.
我还没有时间来理解尼摩船长为什么要这样劝告我，我就被摔在地毯上了。
Its fins set vertically, its propeller thrown in gear at the captain's signal, the Nautilus rose with lightning speed, shooting upward like an air balloon into the sky. Vibrating resonantly, it knifed through the watery mass. Not a single detail was visible. In four minutes it had cleared the four vertical leagues separating it from the surface of the ocean, and after emerging like a flying fish, it fell back into the sea, making the waves leap to prodigious heights.
船上的推进器，由于船长发的信号，跟发动机连结起来，它的纵斜机板垂直地竖立起来，诺第留斯号就像气球飞在空中一样，闪电般的迅速上升。它分开海水，发出响亮的颤声。所有详细情景都不可能看见。四分钟的时间，它就越过了分开它和洋面的四里的距离，同时又跟飞鱼一样，跳出水面，它把海水拍打得飞溅到惊人的高度，随后又落到水面上来。