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For three months, during which each day seemed like a century, the Abraham Lincoln plowed all the northerly seas of the Pacific,
三個月來，林肯號跑遍了太平洋北部所有的海面，
racing after whales sighted, abruptly veering off course, swerving sharply from one tack to another, stopping suddenly,
有時向著看到的鯨魚沖去，有時忽然離開航線，有時突然掉轉船頭，有時一下子停住…
putting on steam and reversing engines in quick succession, at the risk of stripping its gears,
它不惜弄壞機器，不惜浪費動力，
and it didn't leave a single point unexplored from the beaches of Japan to the coasts of America.
從日本海岸到美洲海岸，沒有一處不曾搜索過。
And we found nothing! Nothing except an immenseness of deserted waves!
但是，什么也沒有看見！看見的只是那浩瀚無邊的大海！
Nothing remotely resembling a gigantic narwhale, or an underwater islet, or a derelict shipwreck, or a runaway reef, or anything the least bit unearthly!
至于什么巨大的獨角鯨、潛在水中的海島，沉沒的破船、飛走的暗礁，以及什么神秘的東西，卻都沒有看見！
So the reaction set in.
因此，反響發生了。
At first, discouragement took hold of people's minds, opening the door to disbelief.
首先是人心失望，給懷疑的心理打開一個缺口。
A new feeling appeared on board, made up of three-tenths shame and seven-tenths fury.
船上產生了另一種情緒，造成這情緒的因素是三分羞愧，七分惱怒。
The crew called themselves out-and-out fools for being hoodwinked by a fairy tale, then grew steadily more furious!
死盯住一個空想，自然是愚蠢,但更多的是惱怒！
