評論
打印
Next: how shall we define the whale, by his obvious externals, so as conspicuously to label him for all time to come.
第二 我們該怎樣就它那顯而易見的外形來給鯨下定義,從而永遠(yuǎn)給它以明顯的標(biāo)志呢?
To be short, then, a whale is a spouting fish with a horizontal tail. There you have him.
那么,簡單說來,就是,鯨是一種會噴水,有平尾的魚。這樣人們就明白了。
However contracted, that definition is the result of expanded meditation.
這個定義不管是怎樣被壓縮了,它可是經(jīng)過廣泛思考的結(jié)果。
A walrus spouts much like a whale, but the walrus is not a fish, because he is amphibious.
海象也象鯨一樣很會噴水,可是海象并不是魚,因為它是兩棲動物。
But the last term of the definition is still more cogent, as coupled with the first.
不過,這個定義的后半段,一跟前半段連在一起,就變得更為使人信服了。
Almost any one must have noticed that all the fish familiar to landsmen have not a flat, but a vertical, or up-and-down tail.
幾乎任何人都會注意到,陸地人所熟見的魚都沒有平尾,只有一根垂直的,或者向上向下的尾巴。
Whereas, among spouting fish the tail, though it may be similarly shaped, invariably assumes a horizontal position.
反之,在一切會噴水的魚中,它們的尾巴,雖然形狀可能相似,卻都一定有一種平面的形態(tài)。
By the above definition of what a whale is,
我在上面對鯨所下的定義,
I do by no means exclude from the leviathanic brotherhood any sea creature hitherto identified with the whale by the best informed Nantucketers;
可決不是想借此而把鯨類跟任何海族都隔絕起來,因為一般見多識廣的南塔開特人迄今仍把海族與鯨一視同仁;
nor, on the other hand, link with it any fish hitherto authoritatively regarded as alien.
同時,另一方面,也并不企圖把那種迄今仍被權(quán)威地認(rèn)為是異類的任何魚類拿來跟鯨聯(lián)系起來
Hence, all the smaller, spouting and horizontal tailed fish must be included in this ground-plan of Cetology. Now, then, come the grand divisions of the entire whale host.
于是,一切身材較小的。會噴水而又有平尾的魚類都必須包括在這個鯨類學(xué)的平面圖中。那么,現(xiàn)在就來把整個鯨群分成六大類吧。
But as these pig-fish are a noisy, contemptible set, mostly lurking in the mouths of rivers, and feeding on wet hay, and especially as they do not spout, I deny their credentials as whales; and have presented them with their passports to quit the Kingdom of Cetology.
但是,說到這種咸水火魚,它卻是一種吵吵鬧鬧,十分無聊的魚,大多潛伏在河口,賴濕草為生,尤其是它們并不會噴水,因此,我吊銷了它們作為鯨的國籍證,簽發(fā)給它們一張離開鯨類學(xué)王國的護(hù)照。
