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.
諾第留斯號行駛的方向沒有改變。所以，再回到歐洲海岸去的所有希望暫時都要拋棄了。尼摩船長仍是把船頭指向南方。他帶我們到哪裡去？我不敢設想。
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.
這一天，諾第留斯號走過了大西洋很新奇的一部分海面。大家知道大西洋中有那名為“漩流”的大暖流存在。暖流從佛羅裡達灣出未，向斯勃齊堡灣流去。但在流入墨西哥灣之前，在北緯44度左右，暖流分為兩支：主流奔向愛爾蘭和挪威海岸，支流彎折向南，與阿棱爾群島在同一緯度，然後抵達非洲海岸，畫一個長長的橢圓形，回到安的列斯群島。
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，這條第二支流一一與其說是手臂般的支流，不如說是項圈一般的環流一形成許多暖流圈，把這部分冰冷、平靜和不動的大西洋圍繞起來，名為薩爾加斯海。這是大西洋中的真正湖沼，大暖流的水要繞這湖一周，非三年的時間不成。
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.
薩爾加斯海，嚴格說起來，那海水遮覆了整個廣大的大西洋洲。某些作家甚至承認，那些散佈在這海面的無數草葉，是從這古代大陸的草地分出來的。情況可能是這樣，就是這些草葉植物，昆布、海帶和黑角菜之類，是來自歐洲和美洲海岸，被大西洋暖流一直帶到這邊海中來的。
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.
此刻諾第留斯號走的地方就是上面說的這個海，是真正的一片草場，是昆布、海帶、黑角菜、熱帶海葡萄形成的很厚、很密、很緊湊的地毯，船頭要費很大力量才能把它衝開。所以，尼摩船長不願把他的機輪糾纏在這草葉堆裡面，他讓船在水面下幾米深的水層中行駛。
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.
薩爾加斯這個名字出自西班牙語，意思是海藻。這海藻是浮水藻，或承灣藻，主要構成這廣大的草葉海面。根據《地球自然地理》的作者、科學家莫利的意見，這些海產植物為什麼在大西洋這一帶平靜海水中齊集團結起來，理由是這樣。
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."
他說：“我們可以拿出來的說明，我以為就是從人人都知道的一種經驗所得到的結果。把軟木塞碎片或其他浮體的碎片放進一盆水中，使盆中的水作圓形的運動，我們就看見那些分散的碎片成群地聚在水面的中心，即最不受激動的部分。在現在我們留意的這個現象中，那盆是大西洋，暖流是圓形的水流，薩爾加斯海是浮體齊來團聚的中心。”
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.
我贊同莫利的意見，我又可以在這普通船隻很難達到的特殊環境中，研究這種現象。在我們頭上，浮着從各處漂來的物在這些紫黑色的草葉中間堆積着的，有從安第斯基山脈拔下來、由亞馬遜河或密西西比河浮來的大樹幹，門。無數遇難船的殘骸，龍骨或艙底的剩餘，破損的船板，上面堆滿蛤階和荷茗兒貝，十分沉重，不可能再浮上洋面來。
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，船都在薩爾加斯海中行駛，喜歡吃海產植物和介殼類的魚類，在這裡可以找到豐富的食糧。第二天，大西洋又恢復經常看見的面貌了。
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.
自此以後，從2月23日至3月12日十丸天中，諾第留斯號在大西洋中間，帶著我們走的經常速度為每二十四小時，一百里。尼摩船長很顯然要完成他海底周游的計劃；我並不懷疑他繞過了合恩角後，打算再回到太平洋的南極海來
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-蘭的懼怕是有理由的。在這些海面上，沒有島嶼，逃走的企圖是不用再想了。要反對尼摩船長的意志，更沒有什麼方法；唯一的辦法就是服從。因為一件不可能從強力或計謀得到的事情，我喜歡想，或者是可以用說服的方法得到的。這次旅行結束後，尼摩船長有我們發誓不泄露他的生活秘密的保證，難道還不讓我們自由嗎？這是拿名譽來擔保的誓言，我們必然遵守。不過這個微妙問題需要跟船長商談。那我去要求恢復自由，是不是合適，受歡匹呢？他本人在當初不是已正式說過，他的生活的秘密，是需要我們永遠禁閉在諾第留斯號船上來得到保證嗎？四個月來，我對於這事的沉默，在他看來，不就是我對於自己所處地位的預設嗎？又來討論這個問題，結果恐怕是引起他為疑慮，以致將來有好機會到來，我們要實行逃走計劃的時候，豈不更加困難了嗎？所有這些理由，在我心中翻來覆去，就是細加較量，慎重考慮，也不能決定，我提出來和康塞爾談，他跟我一樣，很是為難。總之，雖然我不很容易失望：但我明白我重見世人的機會是一天一天減少了，特別是在尼摩船長大膽向大西洋南方奔馳的時候！
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.
在我上面說的這十丸天期間內，我們旅行中沒有發生什麼特別意外事件。我很少看見船長。他工作忙。在圖書室裡面，我時常看見有些書，特別是生物科學的書，他翻開擺在那裡。我的關於海底秘密的著作，他翻閲了，在書邊上寫滿批註，有時駁斥我的理論和我的系統。但船長僅只是這樣清除我書中的不正確部分，他很少跟我討論某些問題。有時，我聽到大風琴發出抑鬱沉悶的聲調，他彈奏時，富有表情，不過他單在夜間彈奏，在最秘密的黑暗中間，當諾第留斯號沉睡在荒漠的海洋中間的時候。
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.
在這部分的旅行中，我們整天在水面上航行。海好像是被人造棄了的一樣。只有幾艘帆船，運貨物到印度，向好望角駛去。一天，我們被一隻捕鯨船的小艇追逐，他們一定認為我們的船是價值很大的巨大鯨魚。但尼摩船長不願使那些勇敢的打魚人白費時間和氣力，他叫船潛入水中，結束了他們的追逐。這個意外事件使尼德-蘭發生濃厚興趣。我想，加拿大人對我們這條鋼板鯨魚沒有被打魚人的魚叉叉死，心中一定覺得很可惜，我想我大概沒有想錯。
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.
康塞爾和我在這個期間所觀察到的魚類，跟我門在別的緯度下研究過的，並沒有多大差別。主要是那種可怕的軟骨魚屬中的一些魚，它們分為三個亞屬，一共不下三十二帶條紋的鮫魚，五米長，扁扁的頭比身軀還大，尾鰭作圓形，背上有七條平行斜下的黑色大帶：其次是珠子鮫魚，灰色，鰓間穿有七個孔，單有一個脊鰭，長在身上中間部份。
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.
又有大海狗走過，從前人們曾把它當做貪食凶惡的海魚。一隊一隊漂亮的瘋魔海豬，整整有好幾天陪着我們。它們五六條一群，像狼在鄉間那樣。它們的身子長三米，上面黑色，下面紅白色，帶有很罕見的小斑點。
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.
這次魚類觀察終於結束，康塞爾把一大群飛魚加以分類。看海豬獵取這些飛魚，十分準確，再沒有更新奇的了。不管它飛走的路程遠近，不管它飛出的曲綫多高，就在諾第留斯號上面也扦，不幸的飛魚老是碰到海豚的張開的嘴，把它迎接過去。這些飛魚或是海賊飛魚，或是鴦形魴鮒，它們的發光的嘴當黑夜間在空中畫了一條條的火線後，像流星一樣潛入沉黑的水中。
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，我們的船都在這種情形下繼續行駛。13日那一天，用諾第留斯號來作探測海底的試驗，這使我十分感興趣。
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.
我們從太平洋的遠洋中出發以來，差不多已經走了一百三千里。測定的方位是我們在南緯45度37分，西經37度53分。就是在這一帶海水中，海拉爾號的鄧亨船長曾投下一萬四千米長的探測器，但沒有達到海底。也是在這裡。英國二等戰艦會議號，海軍大尉已爾克投下一萬五千米長的探測器，也沒有達到海底。
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.
尼摩船長決定送他的船到最深的海底，來檢查一下以前多次所得的探測成績。我準備把這次試驗所得的結果完全記錄下來。客廳的嵌板都打開了，船開始潛水下降的動作，一直要抵達最深的水層。
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.
人們很可以想到，現在不是用裝滿儲水池的方法來潛水下降了。或者這種方法不可能充分增大諾第留斯號的比重，使它一直潛到海底。而且浮上來的時候，要排除多裝的水量，怞水機可能沒有足夠的強力來抵抗外部的壓力。
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.
尼摩船長決定這樣探測海底，即使用船側的縱斜機板，使它與諾第留斯號的浮標線成四十五度角，然後沿著一條充分引伸的對角綫潛下去。這樣安排好後，”推進器開到最大的速度，它的四重機葉猛烈攪打海水，這情景簡直難以形容。
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.
在這強大力量的推送下，諾第留斯號的船殻像一根咚咚震響的繩索一樣，全部抖動，很規律地潛入水中．船長和我在客廳中守候，我們眼盯着那移動得很快的壓力表的指針。不久就超過了那大部分魚類可以生活居住的水層。有些魚類只能生活在海水或河水的上層，其他數量較少的魚類又時常住在相當深的水中。在後一種魚類中，我看到六孔海豚，有六個呼吸口，望遠鏡魚，有望遠鏡一般的巨大眼睛，帶甲刀板魚，這魚有灰色的前胸鰭和黑色的後胸鰭，有淡紅色的骨片胸甲保護，最後，榴彈魚，生活在一千二百米的深處，頂着一百二十度的大氣壓力。
I asked Captain Nemo if he had observed any fish at more considerable depths.
我問尼摩船長，他是不是曾在更深的水層觀察過魚類。
"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：“魚類嗎？很少很少。但在目前這一階段人們對於科學又推測到些什麼？人們知道了什麼？”
"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?"
“船長，人們所知道的情形是這樣。人們知道，深入到海洋下的最底層，植物比動物更不容易生長，更快地絶跡。人們知道，在還可以碰到一些生物的水層，任何一種海產植物也沒有了。人們知道，有生活在二千米水深的肩掛貝，牡蠣類，兩極探險英雄麥克-格林托克。曾在北極海中二千五百米深處，采得一個星貝。人們知道，英國皇家海軍猛犬號的船員從二千六百二十英呎，即一海里多的深處，采得一個海星。尼摩船長，您或者會對我說，人們實是一無所知吧？”
"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，”船長回答，“不，我不能這樣不客氣，不過，我要問您，您怎樣解釋這些生物可以在這樣深的水層生活呢？”
"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."
“我用兩個理由來解釋，”我回答，“第一，因為那些上下垂直往來的水流，由海水的不同鹹度和不同密度決定，發生一種運動，足以維持海百合和海星一類的原始基本生活。”
"True," the captain put in.
“對。”船長說。
"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，因為氧是生命的基礎，人們知道，氧溶解在海水中，並不因水深而減少，反因水深而增加，而底下水層的壓力又把它壓縮了。”
"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！人們知道這事嗎？”尼摩船長回答，語氣有點驚異。”那麼，教授，人們當然知道，因為這是事實。我還要說，魚類的縹子，當魚是在水面上捕得的，裡面藏有的氮多於氧，但從水深處捉到它們時就相反，氧多於氮。這也是證明您所說的這一點是對的。現在我們繼續做我們的觀察
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.
我的眼光盯在壓力表上面。表指六千米的深處。我們下沉開始以來有一小時了。諾第留斯號跟它的縱斜機板溜下去，老是往下沉。汪洋無物的海水顯得十分透明；這種透亮性簡直無法形容。再過一小時後，我們到一萬三千米，即三里又四分之一深了，但人們還沒有感到就要抵達海底。
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，到了一萬四千米的時候，我看見帶黑色的尖頂從海水中間露出來。不過這些尖頂可能是屬於跟喜馬拉雅山或白山①一樣高或更高的山的峰頂，下面的深淵還是深不可測。
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.
諾第留斯號雖然受到強大壓力，但仍然繼續下降。我感覺它的鋼板在螺旬-銜接的地方都顫動了，“白的方格鐵板有些彎起來了，它的中間隔板發出悲鳴了，客廳的玻璃窗受海水的壓力好像要凹陷了。如果這架堅固的機器，不像它的船長所說過的，堅硬得像一大塊實鐵：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.
在掠過那些敞在水底下的岩石斜坡的時候，我仍然看到～些介鉿類、蛇蟲類、活的刺蟲類，以及某種海星。
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，動物生活的這些最後代表也不見了，在三里下了面，諾第留斯號就超過了海底生物可以生存的界限了，像氣球上升到不可以呼吸的空氣外層那樣。我們到了一萬六千米，四里的深度，諾第留斯號身上這時是頂着一千六百大氣壓的壓力，即它身上每平方釐米頂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?"
“多麼新奇的地方！”我喊道，“走進這人類從沒有到過的最深處來！船長，請看那些宏偉的岩石，那些沒有居民的岩洞，那些地球的最深收容所，不可能有生命存在的地方！這是從沒有人知道的壯麗鳳景，為什麼我們只能把它們保存在記憶中呢？”
"Would you like," Captain Nemo asked me, "to bring back more than just a memory?"
“教授，”尼摩船長問我，“您想得出比僅僅放在記憶中更高明的辦法嗎？”
"What do you mean?"
“您這話的意思是什麼呢？”
"I mean that nothing could be easier than taking a photograph of this underwater region!"
“我的意思是說，在這海底深處，拍照是再沒有更容易的了！”
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.
我簡直來不及向他表示這新提議使我發生的驚奇，由於尼摩船長的吩咐，立即有一架照相機拿到廳中來。從敞開的嵌板望去，海水周圍受電光照耀，顯得非常清楚。我們的人工光線沒有任何陰暗、任何暈淡不勻的地方。對於這種性質的照相，就是太陽光恐怕也沒有這種光線便利；諾第留斯號在它的推進機的力量下，受它縱斜機板斜度的管制，停住不動。照相機於是對準海洋底下的風景拍攝，沒有幾秒鐘，我們就得到了極端清楚的底版。
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.
我現在拿出來的是正面的陽版底片。人們在照片上看到那些從來沒有受過天上照來的光線的原始基本岩石，那些形成地球的堅強基礎的底層花崗石，那些在大石堆中空出來的深幽岩洞，那些清楚得無可比擬的側影，它們的輪廓作黑色的線條，像某些佛蘭蒙畫家①的畫筆所繪出來的一樣。在更遠一點的地方，是橫在邊際的山脈，有一道波紋彎曲的美麗線條，作為這幅風景的底層遠景。我不可能描寫這一群平滑、黝黑、光澤、沒有薛苔、沒有斑點的岩石，它削成離奇古怪的形狀，並且牢固地矗立在細沙形成的地毯上，沙受曳光的照耀，閃閃發亮。
Meanwhile, his photographic operations over, Captain Nemo told me:
可是，尼摩船長照完了相，對我說：
"Let's go back up, professor. We mustn't push our luck and expose the Nautilus too long to these pressures."
“教授，我們上去吧。不要過久地停留在這個地方，也不要讓諾第留斯號過久地頂住這樣的壓力。”
"Let's go back up!" I replied.
“我們上去。”我回答。
"Hold on tight."
“您好好地站穩。”
Before I had time to realize why the captain made this recommendation, I was hurled to the carpet.
我還沒有時間來理解尼摩船長為什麼要這樣勸告我，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.
船上的推進器，由於船長髮的信號，跟發動機連結起來，它的縱斜機板垂直地豎立起來，諾第留斯號就像氣球飛在空中一樣，閃電般的迅速上升。它分開海水，發出響亮的顫聲。所有詳細情景都不可能看見。四分鐘的時間，它就越過了分開它和洋面的四里的距離，同時又跟飛魚一樣，跳出水面，它把海水拍打得飛濺到驚人的高度，隨後又落到水面上來。