評論
打印
It was truly enormous—an adult could reach lengths of nearly thirty feet and weigh ten tons
它確實非常龐大成年海牛可以長到近9米長，10噸重
but we are acquainted with it only because in 1741 a Russian expedition happened to be shipwrecked on the only place
但我們知道它，僅僅是由于1741年一支俄國探險隊乘坐的船恰好在白令海峽的科曼多群島失了事。
where the creatures still survived in any numbers, the remote and foggy Commander Islands in the Bering Sea.
在這個遙遠的霧氣重重的地方，仍生活著相當數量的海牛。
Happily, the expedition had a naturalist, Georg Steller, who was fascinated by the animal.
幸運的是，這個探險隊中有一位名叫喬治.施特萊的博物學家，他對這種動物著了迷。
"He took the most copious notes," says Flannery. "He even measured the diameter of its whiskers.
“他作了大量筆記，”弗蘭納里說，“他甚至測量了它胡須的長度。
The only thing he wouldn't describe was the male genitals—though, for some reason, he was happy enough to do the female's.
他惟一不愿意描述的就是雄性海牛的生殖器——雖然不知出于何種原因，他對描述雌性海牛的生殖器卻津津樂道。
He even saved a piece of skin, so we had a good idea of its texture. We weren't always so lucky."
他甚至帶回了一塊海牛皮，因此我們對其皮毛的肌理有了更好的了解。但我們并不總是如此運氣。
The one thing Steller couldn't do was save the sea cow itself.
有一件事是施特萊力所不能及的，那就是拯救海牛本身。
Already hunted to the brink of extinction, it would be gone altogether within twenty-seven years of Steller's discovery of it.
當時由于狩獵而已經瀕臨滅絕的海牛，在施特萊發現它們之后的27年的時間里就逐漸完全消失了。
Many other animals, however, couldn't be included because too little is known about them.
然而，還有許多其他的動物不能列入其中，因為我們對它們了解得太少。
The Darling Downs hopping mouse, Chatham Islands swan, Ascension Island flightless crake,
達令草地的跳鼠，查塔姆珍島的天鵝，阿森松島的不會飛的秧雞，
at least five types of large turtle, and many others are forever lost to us except as names.
至少5種類型的大型海龜，以及別的很多動物，除了它們的名字，我們永遠無法了解更多的信息。
A great deal of extinction, Flannery and Schouten discovered, hasn't been cruel or wanton, but just kind of majestically foolish.
弗蘭納里和斯科頓發現，許多動物的滅絕，并不是由于人的殘忍或肆無忌憚，而僅僅是因為他們某種冠冕堂皇的愚蠢行為。
In 1894, when a lighthouse was built on a lonely rock called Stephens Island, in the tempestuous strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand,
1894年，在新西蘭南、北島之間波濤洶涌的海峽中，人們在一塊名為斯蒂芬島的孤零零的巖石上建了一座燈塔，
the lighthouse keeper's cat kept bringing him strange little birds that it had caught.
燈塔看守人的小貓不斷給它的主人叼來古怪的小鳥。
The keeper dutifully sent some specimens to the museum in Wellington.
忠于職守的他將其中的幾只送到了惠靈頓博物館。
There a curator grew very excited because the bird was a relic species of flightless wrens
館長大喜過望，因為這是一種遺留的不會飛的鷦鷯
the only example of a flightless perching bird ever found anywhere.
這是有史以來發現過的惟一一種適于棲立而不會飛的鳥。
