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But it may be fancied, that from the naked skeleton of the stranded whale, accurate hints may be derived touching his true form. Not at all. For it is one of the more curious things about this Leviathan, that his skeleton gives very little idea of his general shape. Though Jeremy Bentham's skeleton, which hangs for candelabra in the library of one of his executors, correctly conveys the idea of a burly-browed utilitarian old gentleman, with all Jeremy's other leading personal characteristics; yet nothing of this kind could be inferred from any leviathan's articulated bones.
不過，也許有人認為，說不定從那只被拖上岸來的鯨的赤裸裸的骨架上，可以對它的真形獲得正確的啟示。并不盡然。因為這就是這種大海獸的比較奇特的事項之一，它的骨架對于它一般形狀也提供不出什么概念來，雖然杰里米·邊沁（杰里米·邊沁（1748—1832）——英國社會學家，他死后，按照他的遺囑，遺體放在遺囑執行人之一的倫敦大學博物館中。）的骨架，可以象大燭臺一般地掛在他一個指定遺囑執行人的圖書館里，正確地傳達出這位魁偉的功利主義的老先生的形象，以及他本人種種主要的特征；然而，從任何一條大海獸的皚皚白骨中，卻一點也推論不出類似的東西來。
In fact, as the great Hunter says, the mere skeleton of the whale bears the same relation to the fully invested and padded animal as the insect does to the chrysalis that so roundingly envelopes it. This peculiarity is strikingly evinced in the head, as in some part of this book will be incidentally shown. It is also very curiously displayed in the side fin, the bones of which almost exactly answer to the bones of the human hand, minus only the thumb. This fin has four regular bone-fingers, the index, middle, ring, and little finger. But all these are permanently lodged in their fleshy covering, as the human fingers in an artificial covering. "However recklessly the whale may sometimes serve us," said humorous Stubb one day, "he can never be truly said to handle us without mittens."
事實上，正如偉大的亨特所說，鯨的骨架之與厚擁重裘的活鯨的關系，不過是象昆蟲之與那被團團包牢的蛹的關系一樣。這個特征，在頭部尤其表現得明顯，這在本書的其它部分將會偶然提到。它那邊鰭也顯得十分奇特，鰭里的骨頭差不多跟人手的骨頭一模一樣，不過沒有大拇指而已。這種鰭有四根正常的手指骨，就是食指、中指、無名指和小指頭。但是所有這種手指骨都深藏在肉里，一如人的手指戴上連指手套那樣。“不管鯨魚會時常多么粗鹵地對付我們，”愛發幽默的斯塔布有一天說，“它可永遠不會不戴連指手套就真的抓得住我們。”
