Why, Ned! I replied. You still aren't over your old fishing urges?
怎么。我回答,尼德,您還沒有打消您哪打鯨魚的老念頭嗎?
How could a whale fisherman forget his old trade, sir?
先生,打鯨魚的人能夠忘記他從前的手藝嗎?
Who could ever get tired of such exciting hunting?
他能夠厭倦這種捕捉所引起的激動嗎?
You've never fished these seas, Ned?
尼德,您從沒有在這一帶海中打過鯨魚嗎?
Never, sir. Just the northernmost seas, equally in the Bering Strait and the Davis Strait.
從沒有,先生。我只在北極海中打鯨魚,就在白令海峽和臺維斯海峽一帶。
So the southern right whale is still unknown to you.
那么,南極的鯨魚對您來說還是陌生的。
Until now it's the bowhead whale you've hunted, and it won't risk going past the warm waters of the equator.
您以前捕捉的都是平常的白鯨,它并木敢冒險通過赤道的溫熱海水。
Oh, professor, what are you feeding me? the Canadian answered in a tolerably skeptical tone.
啊!教授,您給我說什么呀?加拿大人用相當懷疑的口氣回答。
I'm feeding you the facts.
我說的是事實哩。
By thunder! In '65, just two and a half years ago, I to whom you speak, I myself stepped onto the carcass of a whale near Greenland, and its flank still carried the marked harpoon of a whaling ship from the Bering Sea.
好嘛!格陵蘭島附近捕獲了一條鯨魚,它身上還帶著一般白令海峽的捕鯨船所刺中的魚叉。
Now I ask you, after it had been wounded west of America, how could this animal be killed in the east, unless it had cleared the equator and doubled Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope?
現在我要問您,鯨魚在美洲西邊被刺中了,如果它沒有繞合恩角或好望角;通過赤道,它哪能死在美洲東邊呢?
I agree with our friend Ned, Conseil said, and I'm waiting to hear how master will reply to him.
我跟尼德朋友的想法一樣,康塞爾說,我等著聽先生的答復哩。
Master will reply, my friends, that baleen whales are localized, according to species, within certain seas that they never leave.
朋友們,先生的答復是這樣,鯨魚類是有地方性的,按照種類的不同;它們定居在某處海中,并不離開。
And if one of these animals went from the Bering Strait to the Davis Strait, it's quite simply because there's some passageway from the one sea to the other, either along the coasts of Canada or Siberia.
如果有一條鯨魚從白令海峽走到臺維斯侮峽,那很簡單,因為這兩個海洋間一定有一條相通的水路,或在美洲海岸邊,或在亞洲海岸邊。
You expect us to fall for that? the Canadian asked, tipping me a wink.
要我們相信您的話嗎?加拿大人閉著一只眼睛問:
If master says so, Conseil replied.
我們要相信先生的話。康塞爾回答。
Which means, the Canadian went on, since I've never fished these waterways, I don't know the whales that frequent them?
那么,加拿大人立即又說既然我沒有在這一帶海中打過鯨魚,我就不認得往來這一帶海中的鯨魚類嗎?