HOW I GOT ONTO the platform I'm unable to say. Perhaps the Canadian transferred me there. But I could breathe, I could inhale the life-giving sea air. Next to me my two companions were getting tipsy on the fresh oxygen particles. Poor souls who have suffered from long starvation mustn't pounce heedlessly on the first food given them. We, on the other hand, didn't have to practice such moderation: we could suck the atoms from the air by the lungful, and it was the breeze, the breeze itself, that poured into us this luxurious intoxication!
我怎样到平台上来，我不能说。或者是加拿大人把我抱上来的。但我呼吸、我细细尝到那大海的兴奋刺激的空气了。我的两个同伴在我旁边也尽情狂吸这新鲜的空气。不幸受苦的人们长久没有吃东西，是不能马上尽情乱吃人们第一次给他们的食物的；我们却正相反，我们用不着节制，我们可以尽各人的肺量吸取这海上的空气。而给我们送来这种快意迷醉的，正是那海风，正是那海风！
"Ahhh!" Conseil was putting in. "What fine oxygen! Let master have no fears about breathing. There's enough for everyone."
“啊！”康塞尔说，“氧，真好！先生不用怕呼吸了！现在并不缺少，人人都可以有了。”
As for Ned Land, he didn't say a word, but his wide-open jaws would have scared off a shark. And what powerful inhalations! The Canadian "drew" like a furnace going full blast.
至于尼德-兰，他不说话，但他张开大嘴，简直要让鲨鱼看见都害怕。多么大力的呼吸！加拿大人好像正在燃烧的火炉，在那里“怞气”呢。
Our strength returned promptly, and when I looked around, I saw that we were alone on the platform. No crewmen. Not even Captain Nemo. Those strange seamen on the Nautilus were content with the oxygen circulating inside. Not one of them had come up to enjoy the open air.
我们的气力很快就恢复过来，我看一下我们周围，在平台上的只有我们三人：没有一个船上的人员。尼摩船长也不见。诺第留斯号的奇怪的水手们仅仅呼吸那流通到船内的空气就满足了。没有一人出来享受那外面的新鲜空气。
The first words I pronounced were words of appreciation and gratitude to my two companions. Ned and Conseil had kept me alive during the final hours of our long death throes. But no expression of thanks could repay them fully for such devotion.
我说的第一句话是对我的两个同伴表示感激和多谢的话。尼德-兰和康塞尔在长期痛苦的最后数小时中延续了我的生命，把我所有的感谢拿出来偿付这种牺牲精神并不算过多。
"Good lord, professor," Ned Land answered me, "don't mention it! What did we do that's so praiseworthy? Not a thing. It was a question of simple arithmetic. Your life is worth more than ours. So we had to save it."
“好！教授，”尼德-兰回答我，“这事值得说出来吗！我们对这事有什么值得称赞的地方吗？一点都没有。这只是一个算术问题。您的生命比我们的有价值。所以必须保存。”
"No, Ned," I replied, "it isn't worth more. Nobody could be better than a kind and generous man like yourself!"
“不，尼德，”我回答，“我的生命不是更有价值。谁也不能比善良仁爱的人们更优秀，而您正是这种人！”
"All right, all right!" the Canadian repeated in embarrassment.
“算了！算了！”加拿大人很有些为难地一再说。
"And you, my gallant Conseil, you suffered a great deal."
“你呢，我的忠实的康塞尔，你一定也受了大苦了。”
"Not too much, to be candid with master. I was lacking a few throatfuls of air, but I would have gotten by. Besides, when I saw master fainting, it left me without the slightest desire to breathe. It took my breath away, in a manner of . . ."
“老实对先生说，并不怎么难过。我就是短了儿口空气，但我想我可以过得去。并且，我眼见先生晕过去，我就一点不想呼吸了，像人说的，这是断了我的呼……”
Confounded by this lapse into banality, Conseil left his sentence hanging.
废塞尔觉得他太罗嗦了，心中不好意思，没有说完就停住了。
"My friends," I replied, very moved, "we're bound to each other forever, and I'm deeply indebted to you--"
“我的朋友们，”我情绪很激动地回答，“我们彼此是永远团结在一起，同时你们有权利处置我……”
"Which I'll take advantage of," the Canadian shot back.
“我要使用这权利。”加拿大人立即回答。
"Eh?" Conseil put in.
“怎么？”康塞尔说。
"Yes," Ned Land went on. "You can repay your debt by coming with me when I leave this infernal Nautilus."
“是的，”尼德-兰又说，“使用这权利来拉您跟我一同走，当我要离开这地狱的诺第留斯号的时候。”
"By the way," Conseil said, "are we going in a favorable direction?"
“谈正经事吧，”康塞尔说，“我们现在是向着好的方向走吗？”
"Yes," I replied, "because we're going in the direction of the sun, and here the sun is due north."
“是的，”我回答说，“因为我们是向着有太阳的方向走，现在有太阳的就是北方。”
"Sure," Ned Land went on, "but it remains to be seen whether we'll make for the Atlantic or the Pacific, in other words, whether we'll end up in well-traveled or deserted seas."
“不错，”尼德-兰又说，“不过还要知道，我们是向太平洋或向大西洋？是向往来人多的或荒凉无人的海航行呢？”
I had no reply to this, and I feared that Captain Nemo wouldn't take us homeward but rather into that huge ocean washing the shores of both Asia and America. In this way he would complete his underwater tour of the world, going back to those seas where the Nautilus enjoyed the greatest freedom. But if we returned to the Pacific, far from every populated shore, what would happen to Ned Land's plans?
这点我不能答复，我怕尼摩船长要把我们带到同时浸润亚洲和美洲海岸的广阔的太平洋中去。他这样就完成了他的海底坏球旅行了，他又回到诺第留斯号可以获得最完全的自由的海中了。但是，如果我们回到太平洋中来，离开所有人居住的地方，那尼德-兰的计划将怎样呢？
We would soon settle this important point. The Nautilus traveled swiftly. Soon we had cleared the Antarctic Circle plus the promontory of Cape Horn. We were abreast of the tip of South America by March 31 at seven o'clock in the evening.
我们对于这一点不久就明确了。诺第留斯号走得很快。不久就走过了南极圈，船头指着合恩角。我们是在3月31日晚上七点横过南美洲这个尖呷的。
By then all our past sufferings were forgotten. The memory of that imprisonment under the ice faded from our minds. We had thoughts only of the future. Captain Nemo no longer appeared, neither in the lounge nor on the platform. The positions reported each day on the world map were put there by the chief officer, and they enabled me to determine the Nautilus's exact heading. Now then, that evening it became obvious, much to my satisfaction, that we were returning north by the Atlantic route.
那时我们忘记了所有过去的痛苦。那次被困在冰群中的记忆都不留在我们心中了。我们只是想到将来。尼摩船长并不露面，在客厅中，在平台上都看不见他。他的副手每天往地图上记录方位，让我知道诺第留斯号走的确实方向。就在这天晚上，我很满意，方向很明确，我们是从大西洋的水路到北方去。
I shared the results of my observations with the Canadian and Conseil.
我把我观察所得的结果告诉了加拿大人和康塞尔。
"That's good news," the Canadian replied, "but where's the Nautilus going?"
“好消息呀！”加拿大人说，“不过诺第留斯号到哪里去呢广
"I'm unable to say, Ned."
“那我可不能说，尼德。”
"After the South Pole, does our captain want to tackle the North Pole, then go back to the Pacific by the notorious Northwest Passage?"
“它的船长是不是到过了南极，又要到北极去冒险，从西北方的著名水道回来呢？”
"I wouldn't double dare him," Conseil replied.
“也不能不相信他会这样做。”康塞尔回答说。
"Oh well," the Canadian said, "we'll give him the slip long before then."
“那么，”加拿大人说“我们就不能客气，恕不奉培了”
"In any event," Conseil added, "he's a superman, that Captain Nemo, and we'll never regret having known him."
“总之，”康塞尔补充“：，“这个尼摩船长是一个杰出人物，我们认识了他，绝不至后悔。
"Especially once we've left him," Ned Land shot back.
“特别是在离开了他的时候！”尼德，兰立即回答说。
The next day, April 1, when the Nautilus rose to the surface of the waves a few minutes before noon, we raised land to the west. It was Tierra del Fuego, the Land of Fire, a name given it by early navigators after they saw numerous curls of smoke rising from the natives' huts. This Land of Fire forms a huge cluster of islands over thirty leagues long and eighty leagues wide, extending between latitude 53 degrees and 56 degrees south, and between longitude 67 degrees 50' and 77 degrees 15' west. Its coastline looked flat, but high mountains rose in the distance. I even thought I glimpsed Mt. Sarmiento, whose elevation is 2,070 meters above sea level: a pyramid-shaped block of shale with a very sharp summit, which, depending on whether it's clear or veiled in vapor, "predicts fair weather or foul," as Ned Land told me.
第二天，4月1日，诺第留斯号浮上水面来。中午前几分钟，我们在西面望见了海岸。那是火地岛，初期的航海家用为望见岛上土人的茅屋升起了无数的烟火，就给了它这个名称。火地岛形成广大的群岛集体，在南纬53度至56度之间，西经67度50分至77度15分之间，占据长三十里，宽八十里的面积。看来海岸很低下，但远方矗立着群山的高峰。我好像是望见了萨眠图山，这山高出海面两千零七十米，是金字塔形的片岩形成的山，峰顶很尖。尼德。兰告诉我说，根据这山是被云雾所遮，或是山形面目显露，就可以预见天气的好坏。这时候，山峰看来是在天空中清楚显露出来。那是好天气的预告，事实也正是这样。
"A first-class barometer, my friend."
"Yes, sir, a natural barometer that didn't let me down when I navigated the narrows of the Strait of Magellan."
Just then its peak appeared before us, standing out distinctly against the background of the skies. This forecast fair weather. And so it proved.
Going back under the waters, the Nautilus drew near the coast, cruising along it for only a few miles. Through the lounge windows I could see long creepers and gigantic fucus plants, bulb-bearing seaweed of which the open sea at the pole had revealed a few specimens; with their smooth, viscous filaments, they measured as much as 300 meters long; genuine cables more than an inch thick and very tough, they're often used as mooring lines for ships. Another weed, known by the name velp and boasting four-foot leaves, was crammed into the coral concretions and carpeted the ocean floor. It served as both nest and nourishment for myriads of crustaceans and mollusks, for crabs and cuttlefish. Here seals and otters could indulge in a sumptuous meal, mixing meat from fish with vegetables from the sea, like the English with their Irish stews.
诺第留斯号回到水底下，接近海岸，沿岸走了几海里……从容厅中的玻璃窗，我看见很长的海藤，以及巨大的黑角莱，就是那种带球海藻，只有南极的自由海中还有一些品种，它们有粘性和光滑的纤维带，长度达三百米，简直是真正的铁索，比大拇指还粗，很坚韧，时常可以当作船缆来使用。另外一种海草，名为维培菜，叶长四英尺，胶在珊瑚的分泌物中，像地毯一样铺在海底下面。它可以作为无数甲壳动物和软体动物、螃蟹、乌贼等的窝巢和食物。
The Nautilus passed over these lush, luxuriant depths with tremendous speed. Near evening it approached the Falkland Islands, whose rugged summits I recognized the next day. The sea was of moderate depth. So not without good reason, I assumed that these two islands, plus the many islets surrounding them, used to be part of the Magellan coastline. The Falkland Islands were probably discovered by the famous navigator John Davis, who gave them the name Davis Southern Islands. Later Sir Richard Hawkins called them the Maidenland, after the Blessed Virgin. Subsequently, at the beginning of the 18th century, they were named the Malouines by fishermen from Saint-Malo in Brittany, then finally dubbed the Falklands by the English, to whom they belong today.
在这物产丰富的海底上，诺第留斯号极端迅速地驶过。到了晚上，它走近马露因群岛，第二天我就可以看见那群岛上的峭削山峰。
In these waterways our nets brought up fine samples of algae, in particular certain fucus plants whose roots were laden with the world's best mussels. Geese and duck alighted by the dozens on the platform and soon took their places in the ship's pantry. As for fish, I specifically observed some bony fish belonging to the goby genus, especially some gudgeon two decimeters long, sprinkled with whitish and yellow spots.
在这一带海中，我们的鱼网打到很美丽的昆布和各种品种的海带，特别打到了一种黑角菜，根上带有最美味的淡菜。平台上又打到了十来只海鹅和海鸭，不久它们便放到厨房中去。在鱼类方面，我特别看到虾虎鱼属的骨鱼，尤其多滚鱼，长二分米，身上处处有灰白和黄色的斑点。
I likewise marveled at the numerous medusas, including the most beautiful of their breed, the compass jellyfish, unique to the Falkland seas. Some of these jellyfish were shaped like very smooth, semispheric parasols with russet stripes and fringes of twelve neat festoons. Others looked like upside-down baskets from which wide leaves and long red twigs were gracefully trailing. They swam with quiverings of their four leaflike arms, letting the opulent tresses of their tentacles dangle in the drift. I wanted to preserve a few specimens of these delicate zoophytes, but they were merely clouds, shadows, illusions, melting and evaporating outside their native element.
我也欣赏了无数的水母，是最美丽的水母属，马露因海中特有的茧形水母。有时，它们显出半球形，像很光滑的一把伞，上面有红褐色的条纹，下面垂着十二朵挺有规则的花彩。有时又是一个翻过来的花篮，很美观地从篮中散出红色大片的叶和红色的细枝。它们游行的时候，摇动它们的四只叶状胳膊，让自己的丰富触须漂摇四散，随便挂住。我很想保留起这种精美植虫动物的一些品种，但它们不过是烟云、光影、空架，一离开原来的海水，就消敝得无影无踪
When the last tips of the Falkland Islands had disappeared below the horizon, the Nautilus submerged to a depth between twenty and twenty-five meters and went along the South American coast. Captain Nemo didn't put in an appearance.
当马露因群岛的最后高地在水平线上隐没不见的时候，诺第留斯号潜到二十至二十五米深的水层，沿着美洲海岸行驶。尼摩船长一直没有露面。
We didn't leave these Patagonian waterways until April 3, sometimes cruising under the ocean, sometimes on its surface. The Nautilus passed the wide estuary formed by the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, and on April 4 we lay abreast of Uruguay, albeit fifty miles out. Keeping to its northerly heading, it followed the long windings of South America. By then we had fared 16,000 leagues since coming on board in the seas of Japan.
一直到4月3日，我们都没有离开巴塔戈尼亚海岸，船有时在海底下，有时在洋面上。诺第留斯号驶过拉普拉塔河。4月2日，它横过了乌拉圭，但是在距五十海里的海面上。它的方向总是往北，它沿着南美洲弯曲延长的海岸行驶。我们自从日本海上出发以来，到现在已经走了一万六千里了。
Near eleven o'clock in the morning, we cut the Tropic of Capricorn on the 37th meridian, passing well out from Cape Frio. Much to Ned Land's displeasure, Captain Nemo had no liking for the neighborhood of Brazil's populous shores, because he shot by with dizzying speed. Not even the swiftest fish or birds could keep up with us, and the natural curiosities in these seas completely eluded our observation.
早晨十一点左右，南回归线在西经37度上切过。我们走过了佛利奥呷海面。尼摩船长不喜欢让他的船离有人居住的已西海岸太近，用了惊人的速度驶过，使得尼德-兰大为不快。
This speed was maintained for several days, and on the evening of April 9, we raised South America's easternmost tip, Cape São Roque. But then the Nautilus veered away again and went looking for the lowest depths of an underwater valley gouged between this cape and Sierra Leone on the coast of Africa. Abreast of the West Indies, this valley forks into two arms, and to the north it ends in an enormous depression 9,000 meters deep. From this locality to the Lesser Antilles, the ocean's geologic profile features a steeply cut cliff six kilometers high, and abreast of the Cape Verde Islands, there's another wall just as imposing; together these two barricades confine the whole submerged continent of Atlantis. The floor of this immense valley is made picturesque by mountains that furnish these underwater depths with scenic views. This description is based mostly on certain hand-drawn charts kept in the Nautilus's library, charts obviously rendered by Captain Nemo himself from his own personal observations.
这种迅速的行驶维持了好几天，4月9日晚上，我门望见了南美洲最偏东、形成圣罗喀角的尖呷。但诺第留斯号到达里又躲开，它潜入最深的海底，去找寻那在这尖呻和非洲（海岸塞拉-勒窝内之间的海底山谷。这座海底山谷是在安的列斯群岛相同的纬度上分出来，到方九千米的巨大下洼方结束。在这里，大西洋地质上的切面，一直到小安的列斯群岛，有一道长六公里的悬崖，很峭削，在跟青角群岛相同的纬度上，另有一道差不多一样长的石墙，这样就把整个沉下去的大西洋州围起来。这座广大山谷的底层有些山脉，崎岖不平，使这海底下面的景象美丽女口画。我讲这海底的情形，特别是按照诺第留斯号图书室所藏的手稿地图来讲的这地图显然是尼摩船长亲手制的，并且都是根据他个人的观察绘出来的。
For two days we visited these deep and deserted waters by means of our slanting fins. The Nautilus would do long, diagonal dives that took us to every level. But on April 11 it rose suddenly, and the shore reappeared at the mouth of the Amazon River, a huge estuary whose outflow is so considerable, it desalts the sea over an area of several leagues.
两天内，在这一带荒凉无物的深水中，船都利用纵斜机板下去看过。诺第留斯号具有很长纵对角线的斜航作用，使它可以驶至所有的深水层。但在4月11日，它忽然上升，陆地就在亚马逊河的出口现出来，这是宽大的河口，输出水量很丰富，把好几里内的海水都冲得没有咸味了。
We cut the Equator. Twenty miles to the west lay Guiana, French territory where we could easily have taken refuge. But the wind was blowing a strong gust, and the furious billows would not allow us to face them in a mere skiff. No doubt Ned Land understood this because he said nothing to me. For my part, I made no allusion to his escape plans because I didn't want to push him into an attempt that was certain to misfire.
越过了赤道线：西方二十海里是几沿尼群岛，那是法国的领地，我们在那”里可以找到容易藏身的地方。但是海风吹得厉害，汹涌的波浪不容许一只小艇去冒险。这点尼德-兰一定了解到，因为他并不跟我说什么。在我个人，我也不提他的逃走计划，固为我不愿使他做那些一定要流产的试验。
I was readily compensated for this delay by fascinating research. During those two days of April 11-12, the Nautilus didn't leave the surface of the sea, and its trawl brought up a simply miraculous catch of zoophytes, fish, and reptiles.
我很容易拿有兴味的研究来补偿这次的迟误。在4月11日至12日的两天内，诺第留斯号没有离开海面，船上鱼网打倒的植虫类、鱼类和爬虫类非常丰富，成绩惊人。
Some zoophytes were dredged up by the chain of our trawl. Most were lovely sea anemone belonging to the family Actinidia, including among other species, the Phyctalis protexta, native to this part of the ocean: a small cylindrical trunk adorned with vertical lines, mottled with red spots, and crowned by a wondrous blossoming of tentacles. As for mollusks, they consisted of exhibits I had already observed: turret snails, olive shells of the "tent olive" species with neatly intersecting lines and russet spots standing out sharply against a flesh-colored background, fanciful spider conchs that looked like petrified scorpions, transparent glass snails, argonauts, some highly edible cuttlefish, and certain species of squid that the naturalists of antiquity classified with the flying fish, which are used chiefly as bait for catching cod.
有些植虫类是由鱼网的链索拖拽上来。大部分是那美丽的属于海苑葵科的须形海藻，在许多品种中，有那种被带须形藻，原来是大西洋这一部分海中的特产，那是小小的圆筒躯干，带优美的直线纹和红色斑点，头上展开新奇的触须花朵。
As for the fish in these waterways, I noted various species that I hadn't yet had the opportunity to study. Among cartilaginous fish: some brook lamprey, a type of eel fifteen inches long, head greenish, fins violet, back bluish gray, belly a silvery brown strewn with bright spots, iris of the eye encircled in gold, unusual animals that the Amazon's current must have swept out to sea because their natural habitat is fresh water; sting rays, the snout pointed, the tail long, slender, and armed with an extensive jagged sting; small one-meter sharks with gray and whitish hides, their teeth arranged in several backward-curving rows, fish commonly known by the name carpet shark; batfish, a sort of reddish isosceles triangle half a meter long, whose pectoral fins are attached by fleshy extensions that make these fish look like bats, although an appendage made of horn, located near the nostrils, earns them the nickname of sea unicorns; lastly, a couple species of triggerfish, the cucuyo whose stippled flanks glitter with a sparkling gold color, and the bright purple leatherjacket whose hues glisten like a pigeon's throat.
这一带海中的鱼类，我还没有机会加以研究，我举出下面不同的儿种。在软骨鱼类中，有化石花斑鱼，这是一种鳗色，长十五英寸，淡青色的头，紫红色的鳍，蓝灰色的脊背，壮腹是鲜明的银白红褐色斑点，眼膜周围由金黄色圈起来，它们是一种很斩奇的鱼，亚马逊河水把它们……直带到海中来，而它们普通是生活在淡水中的。有多瘤虾鱼，这鱼嘴脸作尖形，尾巴很长，很细，是一根齿形的尖刺。有长一米的小鲛，鲛皮是灰黑带淡臼的颜色，牙齿排成数行，弯曲向后，普通称为拖鞋鱼。有蝙蝠鞍鱼，这是一种作等腰三角形的红色鱼，半米民，胸鳍在突出的肉上，看来有些像蝙蝠的形状，但在鼻孔边有角质的触角，因此又别名为一角鱼。最后有好儿种箭鱼，带甲鱼，这鱼两侧多刺，闪出鲜明的金黄色，以及酸刺鱼，鱼身上的鲜明紫色显出柔和的色泽，像鸽于咽喉部分的颜色那样。
I'll finish up this catalog, a little dry but quite accurate, with the series of bony fish I observed: eels belonging to the genus Apteronotus whose snow-white snout is very blunt, the body painted a handsome black and armed with a very long, slender, fleshy whip; long sardines from the genus Odontognathus, like three-decimeter pike, shining with a bright silver glow; Guaranian mackerel furnished with two anal fins; black-tinted rudderfish that you catch by using torches, fish measuring two meters and boasting white, firm, plump meat that, when fresh, tastes like eel, when dried, like smoked salmon; semired wrasse sporting scales only at the bases of their dorsal and anal fins; grunts on which gold and silver mingle their luster with that of ruby and topaz; yellow-tailed gilthead whose flesh is extremely dainty and whose phosphorescent properties give them away in the midst of the waters; porgies tinted orange, with slender tongues; croakers with gold caudal fins; black surgeonfish; four-eyed fish from Surinam, etc.
我拿我观察的一组多骨鱼类，来结束这个有些枯燥的、但很精确的图表：其中有巴桑鱼，这是无翼鳍属，嘴脸完全是钝角形和雪白的颜色，身上是美丽的黑色，长有一条很长很细的肉质纽带，有多利刺的齿状鱼；有三分米长的沙丁鱼，它发出闪闪的银色白光；有卵形鳍鱼，它长有两支肛门鳍。黑色牙刺鱼，颜色全黑，人们点燃草火把来钓它们；这是两米长的鱼，肉很肥，很白，很坚实，新鲜的时候，昧道跟鳗鱼肉差不多，晒下了，就带熏鲜鱼肉的味道。有半红色的拉布鱼，这鱼只在脊鳍和肛门姥下面才长有鳞。有茧鱼，这鱼身上有金色和银色的光辉，又杂上红玉和黄玉的色泽。有金尾绸鱼，肉非常嫩，它们身上的磷光时时在海水中间显露出来，有普比酬鱼，鱼的舌头细小，身上为橙黄色。又有魔鳍金黄的石龙子，黑色硬鳍鱼，苏里南群岛的突眼鱼等等。
This "et cetera" won't keep me from mentioning one more fish that Conseil, with good reason, will long remember.
这个“等等”并不能拦阻我再谈一种鱼，这种鱼康塞尔很人郴还记得，那是有道理的。
One of our nets had hauled up a type of very flat ray that weighed some twenty kilograms; with its tail cut off, it would have formed a perfect disk. It was white underneath and reddish on top, with big round spots of deep blue encircled in black, its hide quite smooth and ending in a double-lobed fin. Laid out on the platform, it kept struggling with convulsive movements, trying to turn over, making such efforts that its final lunge was about to flip it into the sea. But Conseil, being very possessive of his fish, rushed at it, and before I could stop him, he seized it with both hands.
我们的一张网打到一种很板平的扁鱼，把这鱼的尾巴截去，就可以成为一个完全的圆盘，它重有二十公斤左右。鱼身下面是白的，上面是淡红的，带有深蓝色的圆点，并且圆点周围有黑圈，表皮很光滑-，后面是一支中间开裂的蛤。它摆在平台上，极力挣扎，全身怞搐，想翻过身子来，它费了这么大的力量，最后一次蹦跳，居然就要蹦到海中去了。可是康塞尔看着这条鱼，立即扑上去，我要拦住他的时候，他两手已经把鱼抓住了。
Instantly there he was, thrown on his back, legs in the air, his body half paralyzed, and yelling:
他立即被打倒，两腿蹬在空中，半身麻痹，大声喊：
"Oh, sir, sir! Will you help me!"
“啊：我的主人，我的主人！您快来救救我。”
For once in his life, the poor lad didn't address me "in the third person."
这可怜的老实人对我说话不用“第三人称”，这是第一次。
The Canadian and I sat him up; we massaged his contracted arms, and when he regained his five senses, that eternal classifier mumbled in a broken voice:
加拿大人和我跑去把他扶起来，我们两手急急地摩擦池，当他回复过未的时候，这个永远喜欢分类的人用半吞半；小的声音低低他说：
"Class of cartilaginous fish, order Chondropterygia with fixed gills, suborder Selacia, family Rajiiforma, genus electric ray."
“软骨纲，软鳍目，鳃固定的，鲛亚目，稣鱼科，电鱼属！”
"Yes, my friend," I answered, "it was an electric ray that put you in this deplorable state."
"Oh, master can trust me on this," Conseil shot back. "I'll be revenged on that animal!"
"How?"
"I'll eat it."
Which he did that same evening, but strictly as retaliation. Because, frankly, it tasted like leather.
Poor Conseil had assaulted an electric ray of the most dangerous species, the cumana. Living in a conducting medium such as water, this bizarre animal can electrocute other fish from several meters away, so great is the power of its electric organ, an organ whose two chief surfaces measure at least twenty-seven square feet.
During the course of the next day, April 12, the Nautilus drew near the coast of Dutch Guiana, by the mouth of the Maroni River. There several groups of sea cows were living in family units. These were manatees, which belong to the order Sirenia, like the dugong and Steller's sea cow. Harmless and unaggressive, these fine animals were six to seven meters long and must have weighed at least 4,000 kilograms each. I told Ned Land and Conseil that farseeing nature had given these mammals a major role to play. In essence, manatees, like seals, are designed to graze the underwater prairies, destroying the clusters of weeds that obstruct the mouths of tropical rivers.
"And do you know," I added, "what happened since man has almost completely wiped out these beneficial races? Rotting weeds have poisoned the air, and this poisoned air causes the yellow fever that devastates these wonderful countries. This toxic vegetation has increased beneath the seas of the Torrid Zone, so the disease spreads unchecked from the mouth of the Rio de la Plata to Florida!"
And if Professor Toussenel is correct, this plague is nothing compared to the scourge that will strike our descendants once the seas are depopulated of whales and seals. By then, crowded with jellyfish, squid, and other devilfish, the oceans will have become huge centers of infection, because their waves will no longer possess "these huge stomachs that God has entrusted with scouring the surface of the sea."
Meanwhile, without scorning these theories, the Nautilus's crew captured half a dozen manatees. In essence, it was an issue of stocking the larder with excellent red meat, even better than beef or veal. Their hunting was not a fascinating sport. The manatees let themselves be struck down without offering any resistance. Several thousand kilos of meat were hauled below, to be dried and stored.
The same day an odd fishing practice further increased the Nautilus's stores, so full of game were these seas. Our trawl brought up in its meshes a number of fish whose heads were topped by little oval slabs with fleshy edges. These were suckerfish from the third family of the subbrachian Malacopterygia. These flat disks on their heads consist of crosswise plates of movable cartilage, between which the animals can create a vacuum, enabling them to stick to objects like suction cups.
The remoras I had observed in the Mediterranean were related to this species. But the creature at issue here was an Echeneis osteochara, unique to this sea. Right after catching them, our seamen dropped them in buckets of water.
Its fishing finished, the Nautilus drew nearer to the coast. In this locality a number of sea turtles were sleeping on the surface of the waves. It would have been difficult to capture these valuable reptiles, because they wake up at the slightest sound, and their solid carapaces are harpoon-proof. But our suckerfish would effect their capture with extraordinary certainty and precision. In truth, this animal is a living fishhook, promising wealth and happiness to the greenest fisherman in the business.
The Nautilus's men attached to each fish's tail a ring that was big enough not to hamper its movements, and to this ring a long rope whose other end was moored on board.
Thrown into the sea, the suckerfish immediately began to play their roles, going and fastening themselves onto the breastplates of the turtles. Their tenacity was so great, they would rip apart rather than let go. They were hauled in, still sticking to the turtles that came aboard with them.
In this way we caught several loggerheads, reptiles a meter wide and weighing 200 kilos. They're extremely valuable because of their carapaces, which are covered with big slabs of horn, thin, brown, transparent, with white and yellow markings. Besides, they were excellent from an edible viewpoint, with an exquisite flavor comparable to the green turtle.
This fishing ended our stay in the waterways of the Amazon, and that evening the Nautilus took to the high seas once more.