海底兩萬里 第239期 第19章 萬尼科羅群島(1)

THIS DREADFUL SIGHT was the first of a whole series of maritime catastrophes that the Nautilus would encounter on its run. When it plied more heavily traveled seas, we often saw wrecked hulls rotting in midwater, and farther down, cannons, shells, anchors, chains, and a thousand other iron objects rusting away.

上面看到的可怕景象，是諾第留斯號在航程中碰到的一連串海中災(zāi)禍的開始，自從它到了船只往來比較多的海中，我們時常看見遇難的船只在海水中腐爛了，在更深的地方，海底下面，看到上了銹的大炮、子彈、錨、鏈以及其他許多鐵器。

Meanwhile, continuously swept along by the Nautilus, where we lived in near isolation, we raised the Tuamotu Islands on December 11, that old "dangerous group" associated with the French global navigator Commander Bougainville; it stretches from Ducie Island to Lazareff Island over an area of 500 leagues from the east-southeast to the west-northwest, between latitude 13 degrees 30' and 23 degrees 50' south, and between longitude 125 degrees 30' and 151 degrees 30' west. This island group covers a surface area of 370 square leagues, and it's made up of some sixty subgroups, among which we noted the Gambier group, which is a French protectorate. These islands are coral formations. Thanks to the work of polyps, a slow but steady upheaval will someday connect these islands to each other. Later on, this new island will be fused to its neighboring island groups, and a fifth continent will stretch from New Zealand and New Caledonia as far as the Marquesas Islands.

不過，諾第留斯號總是帶著我們前進。我們在船上很孤獨地生活。12月11日，我們望見了帕摩圖群島， 這群島位于南緯13度30分和23度50分之間，西經(jīng)125度30分和151度30分之間， 從度西島直至拉查列島，由東南偏東至西北偏西，在長五百里的海面上羅列起來。群島的面積共三百七十平方里，由約莫六十個小群島組成，在這些小群島中間，我看到了法國占領(lǐng)的作為它的保護地的甘比爾群島。這些小群島全是珊瑚島。由于珊瑚這種腔腸動物所起的作用，造成地面緩慢地，但連續(xù)地上升，因此，將來一定有一天會把這些小島連接起來。以后，連接起來的新島又跟鄰近的群島銜接，久而久之，從新西蘭和新喀里多尼亞島起，至馬貴斯群島止，便要出現(xiàn)一個新大陸，那就是未來的第五大洲。