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Chapter 58 Brit
第五十八章 小魚
Steering north-eastward from the Crozetts, we fell in with vast meadows of brit, the minute, yellow substance, upon which the Right Whale largely feeds. For leagues and leagues it undulated round us, so that we seemed to be sailing through boundless fields of ripe and golden wheat.
從克羅澤斯向東北方駛去，我們掉進了一大片小魚牧場，這些小魚主要是露脊鯨賴以為生的黃色細小的東西。這些東西在我們周圍起伏綿延了好許多海里，所以，我們仿佛駛進了一片一望無際金黃成熟的麥地。
On the second day, numbers of Right Whales were seen, who, secure from the attack of a Sperm-Whaler like the Pequod, with open jaws sluggishly swam through the brit, which, adhering to the fringing fibres of that wondrous Venetian blind in their mouths, was in that manner separated from the water that escaped at the lip.
第二天，就看到了無數的露脊鯨。它們都大張著嘴，遲鈍地在小魚群里穿梭，不怕會遭到象“裴廓德號”這樣的捕抹香鯨船的攻擊。那些小魚，一粘在鯨嘴里那象是奇妙的細長窗簾的縫飾后，就那樣同打唇邊流出來的海水分別了。
As morning mowers, who side by side slowly and seethingly advance their scythes through the long wet grass of marshy meads; even so these monsters swam, making a strange, grassy, cutting sound; and leaving behind them endless swaths of blue upon the yellow sea.
它們如同早晨的刈草人那樣，肩并肩地穿過那片有如長長的濕草的沼澤地，慢慢地向前揮動著他們的鐮刀。這些巨獸在向前游去的時候，也同樣發出一種奇特的、刈草似的聲音來，在黃色的海面上，撇下了一片漫無盡止的刈過了草后的藍色
Footnote: That part of the sea known among whalemen as the "Brazil Banks" does not bear that name as the Banks of Newfoundland do, because of there being shallows and soundings there, but because of this remarkable meadow-like appearance, caused by the vast drifts of brit continually floating in those latitudes, where the Right Whale is often chased.
（原注：這一帶的海洋，雖被捕鯨人稱做巴西沙洲，可是它并不象紐芬蘭沙洲那般名實相符，因為后者水淺，容易測探，前者則因為是小鯡魚經常大群漂流的地方，外表上很象一片牧場，也是經常追擊露脊鯨的地方。）。
