評論
打印
"Out of the way, Commodore!" cried one, to a great dromedary that of a sudden rose bodily to the surface, and for an instant threatened to swamp us. "Hard down with your tail, there!" cried a second to another, which, close to our gunwale, seemed calmly cooling himself with his own fan-like extremity.
"閃開些，艇長！"這個叫道，因為他看到突然有一只象單峰大駱駝似的東西冒出了海面，眼看一下子就要把我們弄翻了。"喂，轉舵當風呀！"那一個叫道，因為他看到另一條鯨，靠著我們的舷壁，好象泰然地用它那只大扇子似的尾巴在給自己扇風。
All whale-boats carry certain curious contrivances, originally invented by the Nantucket Indians, called druggs. Two thick squares of wood of equal size are stoutly clenched together, so that they cross each other's grain at right angles; a line of considerable length is then attached to the middle of this block, and the other end of the line being looped, it can in a moment be fastened to a harpoon. It is chiefly among gallied whales that this drugg is used. For then, more whales are close round you than you can possibly chase at one time. But sperm whales are not every day encountered; while you may, then, you must kill all you can. And if you cannot kill them all at once, you must wing them, so that they can be afterwards killed at your leisure. Hence it is, that at times like these the drug, comes into requisition. Our boat was furnished with three of them. The first and second were successfully darted, and we saw the whales staggeringly running off, fettered by the enormous sidelong resistance of the towing drugg. They were cramped like malefactors with the chain and ball.
所有的捕鯨小艇都帶有一些精巧的小發明品，這種東西叫做"得拉格"，原來是南塔開特的印第安人始創的。它是把兩塊四方的、大小一樣的厚木頭緊嵌在一起，使兩塊木頭的紋路彼此相交成直角；然后用一根相當長的繩子縛在這木塊中間，把繩子的另一端結成一個活圈，使它可以立刻縛住標槍。它主要是在碰到"嚇怕了"的鯨群才拿出來用的。因為在這時，你周圍的那些鯨已經密集得叫你無法一下子追擊它們了。而抹香鯨又不是每天都可以碰到的；于是，既然有了機會，就得竭盡力之所及，把它們全都捕殺了。如果你不能一下子都把它們殺倒，那就得把它們弄傷，這樣，可以等你以后有空的時候再慢慢地來捕殺。因此，凡是碰到這樣的場合，就用得著這種"得拉格"了。我們的小艇一共備有三只這樣的東西。頭二只都很順利地戳住了，我們看到那兩條鯨，被斜里拖著的大木頭銬住著，蹣蹣跚跚地奔開去。它們被鉗得象拖著鐵鏈鐵球的犯人。
