"Professor," he told me, "the simple logic of the naturalist led me to discover this passageway, and I alone am familiar with it. I'd noted that in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean there exist a number of absolutely identical species of fish: eels, butterfish, greenfish, bass, jewelfish, flying fish. Certain of this fact, I wondered if there weren't a connection between the two seas. If there were, its underground current had to go from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean simply because of their difference in level. So I caught a large number of fish in the vicinity of Suez. I slipped copper rings around their tails and tossed them back into the sea. A few months later off the coast of Syria, I recaptured a few specimens of my fish, adorned with their telltale rings. So this proved to me that some connection existed between the two seas. I searched for it with my Nautilus, I discovered it, I ventured into it; and soon, professor, you also will have cleared my Arabic tunnel!"
“教授,使我發(fā)現(xiàn)這條只有我一人認(rèn)識的海底地道的,是一個生物學(xué)家的簡單推理。我曾經(jīng)注意到,在紅海中和在地中海中有某一些完全相同的魚類,比如蛇魚,車魚,絞車魚,簇魚,愚魚,飛魚。我確定了這事實,我就問,在這兩、個海中間是不是有交通路線的存在。如果有交通路線存在,地下水流僅僅由于兩海的水平面不同,必然要從紅海流到地中海。因此我在蘇伊士附近打了很多魚,我把銅圈套在魚尾上,然后把魚放人海中。幾個月后,在敘利亞海岸,我找到了一些我從前放走的尾上有銅圈的魚。因此兩海之間有路可通的想法就得到了證明小我利用諾第留斯號去找尋這條通路,要于把它發(fā)現(xiàn)了,我也冒險走過去了。教授。不久:您也要通過我的阿拉伯海底地道!”