海底兩萬里 第405期 第25章 地中海四十八小時(34)
THE NAUTILUS didn't change direction. For the time being, then, we had to set aside any hope of returning to European seas.
諾第留斯號行駛的方向沒有改變。所以，再回到歐洲海岸去的所有希望暫時都要拋棄了。
Captain Nemo kept his prow pointing south. Where was he taking us? I was afraid to guess.
尼摩船長仍是把船頭指向南方。他帶我們到哪里去？我不敢設(shè)想。
That day the Nautilus crossed an odd part of the Atlantic Ocean.
這一天，諾第留斯號走過了大西洋很新奇的一部分海面。
No one is unaware of the existence of that great warm-water current known by name as the Gulf Stream.
大家知道大西洋中有那名為“漩流”的大暖流存在。
After emerging from channels off Florida, it heads toward Spitzbergen.
暖流從佛羅里達(dá)灣出未，向斯勃齊堡灣流去。
But before entering the Gulf of Mexico near latitude 44 degrees north, this current pides into two arms;
但在流入墨西哥灣之前，在北緯44度左右，暖流分為兩支：
its chief arm makes for the shores of Ireland and Norway while the second flexes southward at the level of the Azores;
主流奔向愛爾蘭和挪威海岸，支流彎折向南，與阿棱爾群島在同一緯度，
then it hits the coast of Africa, sweeps in a long oval, and returns to the Caribbean Sea.
然后抵達(dá)非洲海岸，畫一個長長的橢圓形，回到安的列斯群島。
Now then, this second arm--more accurately, a collar--forms a ring of warm water around a section of cool, tranquil, motionless ocean called the Sargasso Sea.
可是，這條第二支流一一與其說是手臂般的支流，不如說是項圈一般的環(huán)流一形成許多暖流圈，把這部分冰冷、平靜和不動的大西洋圍繞起來，名為薩爾加斯海。
This is an actual lake in the open Atlantic, and the great current's waters take at least three years to circle it.
這是大西洋中的真正湖沼，大暖流的水要繞這湖一周，非三年的時間不成。
