海底兩萬里 第51期 第5章 冒險(xiǎn)活動(6)

Now, professor, you know even better than I that nature doesn't violate good sense,

并且，教授，您比我更了解，自然造物，決不自相矛盾，

and she wouldn't give some naturally slow animal the ability to move swiftly if it hadn't a need to use that talent.

它決不使天性遲緩的動物，有快速走動的能力，因?yàn)檫@種能力對它并無必要。

So if the beast does exist, it's already long gone!

所以，這種動物如果存在的話，它早就跑遠(yuǎn)了!

I had no reply to this. Obviously we were just groping blindly.

聽了他這話，我沒法回答。很明顯，我們確實(shí)是盲目地行動著。

But how else could we go about it? All the same, our chances were automatically pretty limited.

可是，又有什么辦法呢?我們的機(jī)會很有限，

Yet everyone still felt confident of success, and not a sailor on board would have bet against the narwhale appearing, and soon.

不過，對于事情的成功，還沒有人加以懷疑，船上沒有一名水手敢打賭，說沒有獨(dú)角鯨，說它不會出現(xiàn)。

On July 20 we cut the Tropic of Capricorn at longitude 105 degrees, and by the 27th of the same month, we had cleared the equator on the 110th meridian.

7月20日南回歸線正交在經(jīng)度105度，同月27日我們穿過了在西經(jīng)110度上的赤道線。

These bearings determined, the frigate took a more decisive westward heading and tackled the seas of the central Pacific.

此后，船便一直向西行駛，駛進(jìn)太平洋的中部海中。