海底兩萬里 第213期 第16章 在海底平原散步(4)

　　Captain Nemo walked in front, and his companion followed us a few steps to the rear. Conseil and I stayed next to each other, as if daydreaming that through our metal carapaces, a little polite conversation might still be possible! Already I no longer felt the bulkiness of my clothes, footwear, and air tank, nor the weight of the heavy sphere inside which my head wasrattling like an almond in its shell. Once immersed in water, all these objects lost a part of their weight equal to the weight of the liquid they displaced, and thanks to this law of physics discovered by Archimedes, I did just fine. I was no longer an inert mass, and I had, comparatively speaking, great freedom of movement.

　　尼摩船長走在前面，他的同伴在后面距離好幾步跟隨著我們。康塞爾和我，彼此緊挨著，好像我們可以通過我們的金屬外殼交談似的。我不再感到我的衣服，我的鞋底，我的空氣箱的沉重了，也不覺得這厚厚的圓球的分量，我的腦袋在圓球中間搖來晃去，像杏仁在它的核中滾動一般。所有這些物體，在水中失去了一部分重量，即它們排去的水的重量，因此我進(jìn)一步了解了阿基米德發(fā)現(xiàn)的這條物理學(xué)原理。我不再是一塊呆立不動的物體，差不多可以說能夠運動自如了。

　　Lighting up the seafloor even thirty feet beneath the surface of the ocean, the sun astonished me with its power.The solar rays easily crossed this aqueous mass and dispersed its dark colors. I could easily distinguish objects 100 meters away. Farther on, the bottom was tintedwith fine shades of ultramarine; then, off in the distance, it turned blue and faded in the midst of a hazy darkness. Truly, this water surrounding me was just a kind of air, denser than the atmosphere on land but almost as transparent. Above me I could see the calm surface of the ocean.

　　陽光可以照到洋面下三十英尺的地方，這股力量真使我驚奇。太陽光強有力地穿過水層，把水中的顏色驅(qū)散，我可以清楚地分辨一百米以內(nèi)的物體。百米之外，水底現(xiàn)出天藍(lán)一般的漸次暈淡的不同色度，在遠(yuǎn)處變成淺藍(lán)，沒人模糊的黑暗中。真的，在我周圍的這水實在不過是一種空氣，雖然密度較地上的空氣大，但透明的情形是跟地上空氣相仿。在我頭上，我又看見那平靜無波的海面。