英語聽書《白鯨記》第682期

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When two large, loaded Indian-men chance to crowd and crush towards each other in the docks, what do the sailors do? They do not suspend between them, at the point of coming contact, any merely hard substance, like iron or wood. No, they hold there a large, round wad of tow and cork, enveloped in the thickest and toughest of ox-hide. That bravely and uninjured takes the jam which would have snapped all their oaken handspikes and iron crow-bars. By itself this sufficiently illustrates the obvious fact I drive at. But supplementary to this, it has hypothetically occurred to me, that as ordinary fish possess what is called a swimming bladder in them, capable, at will, of distension or contraction; and as the Sperm Whale, as far as I know, has no such provision in him; considering, too, the otherwise inexplicable manner in which he now depresses his head altogether beneath the surface, and anon swims with it high elevated out of the water; considering the unobstructed elasticity of its envelope; considering the unique interior of his head; it has hypothetically occurred to me, I say, that those mystical lung-celled honeycombs there may possibly have some hitherto unknown and unsuspected connexion with the outer air, so as to be susceptible to atmospheric distension and contraction.

當兩個身材高大、喝醉了酒的印度群島人偶然在碼頭上打起架來的時候，你想水手們是怎樣辦的？在兩人就要相碰的時分，他們可不用什么鐵器或者木頭那種硬東西，來從中攔住他們。不，他們是用一個外面包著最厚最粗的生牛皮，里面塞著繩索的又圓又大的東西。那件無畏而不會傷人的東西往那中間一塞，那股力量準會教一切橡木梃和鐵撬都給折斷。光是這個譬喻，就足以說明我所要說的明顯的事實了。不過，這里得補充一點（這也是我偶然想到的臆測），那就是，普通魚類的身上都有一種能夠自由脹縮的、叫做鰾的東西；然而，就我所知，抹香鯨身上可沒有這種設備；而且，就它那以另一種費解的姿勢，一會兒把頭完全沉到水里，再一會兒又用那姿勢從水里把頭高高抬起而游去的情況說來，就它那層包著的東西具有伸縮自如的能耐說來，就它那只珍奇無雙的頭顱的內(nèi)部結(jié)構(gòu)說來；我說，我偶然所想到的臆測就是，它那些奧妙的肺細胞似的蜂窩可能還有一種直到如今還未被發(fā)現(xiàn)、而又無疑是跟外面空氣有聯(lián)系的東西，這才使得它能脹縮自如，吸收空氣。