海底兩萬里 第342期 第23章 珊瑚王國(41)

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Then the Nautilus drew near the beaches of Africa, where the sea is considerably deeper. There, through the open panels and in a midwater of crystal clarity, our ship enabled us to study wonderful bushes of shining coral and huge chunks of rock wrapped in splendid green furs of algae and fucus. What an indescribable sight, and what a variety of settings and scenery where these reefs and volcanic islands leveled off by the Libyan coast! But soon the Nautilus hugged the eastern shore where these tree forms appeared in all their glory. This was off the coast of Tihama, and there such zoophyte displays not only flourished below sea level but they also fashioned picturesque networks that unreeled as high as ten fathoms above it; the latter were more whimsical but less colorful than the former, which kept their bloom thanks to the moist vitality of the waters.

隨后，諾第留斯號走近非洲海岸，這一帶的海就深得多了。這里，在水晶一般清澈的海水中間，從打開的嵌板，我可以細細看那色彩鮮明的珊瑚的奇妙叢林，那披上海帶和黑角萊的華美青綠毛皮的一片片寬大巖石。與利比亞海岸相接的這些火山的暗礁和小島，鋪排成地毯一般，景色變化無窮，真是無法形容，無法描寫！但是，海底這些叢生的枝狀動物表現(xiàn)得最美麗的地方；還是在諾第留斯號就要駛到的東部的海岸附近。那是在鐵哈馬海岸一帶，因為在這一帶海岸，不單海面下有一層一層的花一般的植蟲動物，而且這些植蟲動物在二十米水深左右滿是組成五色斑爛的圖象花紋，但水底下的比接近水面的一層變化更多，顏色較為黯淡，因為近水面的一層受海水的濕潤，保持著鮮艷的顏色。

How many delightful hours I spent in this way at the lounge window! How many new specimens of underwater flora and fauna I marveled at beneath the light of our electric beacon! Mushroom-shaped fungus coral, some slate-colored sea anemone including the species Thalassianthus aster among others, organ-pipe coral arranged like flutes and just begging for a puff from the god Pan, shells unique to this sea that dwell in madreporic cavities and whose bases are twisted into squat spirals, and finally a thousand samples of a polypary I hadn't observed until then: the common sponge.

我這樣在客廳的玻璃窗戶邊，不知道度過了多少愜意進人的時間！我在我們的電光探照燈下，不知道欣賞了多少海底下的新品種動植物！有傘形菌；有石板色的多須峭；特別是晶形峭；有管珊瑚，像笛子一般，等著潘神來吹，有這一帶海中特產(chǎn)的貝殼，附生在造礁珊瑚的空洞中，下部有，很短的螺絲紋環(huán)繞，最后有成千成萬的那種水媳類，那些就是我還沒有看到過的普通海綿。