海底兩萬(wàn)里 第228期 第17章 海底森林(9)
For an hour plains of sand unrolled before our steps. Often the seafloor rose to within two meters of the surface of the water. I could then see our images clearly mirrored on the underside of the waves, but reflected upside down: above us there appeared an identical band that duplicated our every movement and gesture; in short, a perfect likeness of the quartet near which it walked, but with heads down and feet in the air.
在一小時(shí)內(nèi)，一片細(xì)沙的平原在我們腳下擺開(kāi)。平原時(shí)常升至距海面不及兩米的深度。我當(dāng)時(shí)看見(jiàn)我們的影子反映在水中，清楚地現(xiàn)出來(lái)，方向正相反：在我們上面，現(xiàn)出同樣的一群人，表演我們的動(dòng)作和姿勢(shì)，一切都相同，就是腦袋垂在下面，兩腳倒懸在空中。
Another unusual effect. Heavy clouds passed above us, forming and fading swiftly. But after thinking it over, I realized that these so-called clouds were caused simply by the changing densities of the long ground swells, and I even spotted the foaming "white caps" that their breaking crests were proliferating over the surface of the water. Lastly, I couldn't help seeing the actual shadows of large birds passing over our heads, swiftly skimming the surface of the sea.
值得記下的還有另一種情況。一陣陣的濃云飛掠過(guò)去，這些云很快地形成，也很快地消失;但仔細(xì)一想，我明白，這些所謂云只不過(guò)是海底厚薄不一的波浪所反映出來(lái)的。我又看到浪頭向下折落時(shí)演成無(wú)數(shù)泡沫飛濺的滾滾白禱，像羊群一樣。我也見(jiàn)過(guò)那些在我們頭上的巨大鳥(niǎo)類(lèi)的陰影，它們從海面疾飛掠過(guò)。
On this occasion I witnessed one of the finest gunshots ever to thrill the marrow of a hunter. A large bird with a wide wingspan, quite clearly visible, approached and hovered over us. When it was just a few meters above the waves, Captain Nemo's companion took aim and fired. The animal dropped, electrocuted, and its descent brought it within reach of our adroit hunter, who promptly took possession of it. It was an albatross of the finest species, a wonderful specimen of these open-sea fowl.
這個(gè)時(shí)候，我親眼看到一次射擊，也許從來(lái)沒(méi)有一個(gè)獵人曾經(jīng)發(fā)射過(guò)這樣準(zhǔn)確、漂亮的槍。一只大鳥(niǎo)，可以看得很清楚，兩翼張得很大的飛翔前來(lái)。尼摩船長(zhǎng)的同伴看見(jiàn)大鳥(niǎo)在離水波僅僅幾米的上面，尼摩就瞄準(zhǔn)，射擊。大鳥(niǎo)被擊落下來(lái)，一直掉到這位敏捷的獵人的近旁，他立即把鳥(niǎo)捉住。這是最美麗的一種海鵝，海鳥(niǎo)中最使人贊美的一個(gè)鳥(niǎo)類(lèi)品種。
