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How obvious it is it, too, that this necessity for the whale's rising exposes him to all the fatal hazards of the chase. For not by hook or by net could this vast leviathan be caught, when sailing a thousand fathoms beneath the sunlight. Not so much thy skill, then, O hunter, as the great necessities that strike the victory to thee!
鯨既然必需這樣冒出水面來，那么，它顯然就有遭到追擊的一切生命攸關的危險了。因為當它游在幾千英尺的海底的時候，象這樣碩大無朋的大海獸，可不是用鉤用網就能捕捉得到的。這樣說來，獵人呵，使你獲勝的，可不一定是由于你的技巧高明，而是由于它那必然的習慣了！
In man, breathing is incessantly going on—one breath only serving for two or three pulsations; so that whatever other business he has to attend to, waking or sleeping, breathe he must, or die he will. But the Sperm Whale only breathes about one seventh or Sunday of his time.
人類是一刻也不停地在呼吸的——一次呼吸只頂得上兩三次脈搏跳動；所以，不管他還得去做其它什么事，醒著也好，睡著也好，他都必須呼吸，否則，他就要完蛋。可是，抹香鯨的呼吸次數卻只有人類的七分之一，或者可以說，它是只在它自己的禮拜天才呼吸一次。
It has been said that the whale only breathes through his spout-hole; if it could truthfully be added that his spouts are mixed with water, then I opine we should be furnished with the reason why his sense of smell seems obliterated in him; for the only thing about him that at all answers to his nose is that identical spout-hole; and being so clogged with two elements, it could not be expected to have the power of smelling. But owing to the mystery of the spout—whether it be water or whether it be vapor—no absolute certainty can as yet be arrived at on this head. Sure it is, nevertheless, that the Sperm Whale has no proper olfactories. But what does he want of them? No roses, no violets, no Cologne-water in the sea.
剛才已經說過，大鯨是完全靠它的噴水孔呼吸的；如果可以再如實地補充一句說：它的噴口是跟水混在一起的，那么，我認為我們還得再提出理由來，說明它為什么好象沒有嗅覺似的；因為它所能稱為鼻子的就只是那個噴水孔；而這只噴水孔又都塞滿了空氣和水，怎么能指望它會有嗅覺力呢。不過由于那噴水是個謎——不知它究竟是水還是氣——所以在這方面迄今還沒有得出絕對肯定的結論來。盡管如此，抹香鯨卻的確是沒有正式的嗅覺器官的。可是，它要嗅覺器官干什么呢？海里既沒有玫瑰花，又沒有紫羅蘭花，更沒有科隆香水。
