Wooden whales, or whales cut in profile out of the small dark slabs of the noble South Sea war-wood, are frequently met with in the forecastles of American whalers. Some of them are done with much accuracy.
木刻鯨,或者用南海那種高貴的戰(zhàn)木似的小塊黑石板所刻成的鯨側面像,都可以經(jīng)常在美國捕鯨船的船頭樓里看到。其中有一些而且做得很是精細。
At some old gable-roofed country houses you will see brass whales hung by the tail for knockers to the road-side door. When the porter is sleepy, the anvil-headed whale would be best. But these knocking whales are seldom remarkable as faithful essays. On the spires of some old-fashioned churches you will see sheet-iron whales placed there for weathercocks; but they are so elevated, and besides that are to all intents and purposes so labelled with "Hands off!" you cannot examine them closely enough to decide upon their merit.
在鄉(xiāng)間一些老式的人字形屋頂上,還可以看到在靠路旁的大門上,掛有當做門環(huán)的鯨尾。如果那個看門人是昏昏欲睡的話,那只砧頭鯨就最管用。可是,這些充當敲門磚的鯨總是不大經(jīng)得起考驗。在一些老式教堂的尖頂上,還可以看到把鐵板做的鯨放在那上面做風信標;不過,這些鯨都是那么高高在上,而且實際上,旁邊還標有"請勿動手"的條子,使人無法仔細觀察它們,從而肯定它們的價值。
In bony, ribby regions of the earth, where at the base of high broken cliffs masses of rock lie strewn in fantastic groupings upon the plain, you will often discover images as of the petrified forms of the Leviathan partly merged in grass, which of a windy day breaks against them in a surf of green surges.
在土地貧瘠的地區(qū),在高聳而支離破裂的峭壁底下,平地上都散布有一堆堆奇形怪狀的巖石塊,在這種地方,就經(jīng)??梢哉业揭环N化石鯨形象,在草里露出半個身體來,那是因為一陣大風而把它們刮到草叢里去的。
Then, again, in mountainous countries where the traveller is continually girdled by amphitheatrical heights; here and there from some lucky point of view you will catch passing glimpses of the profiles of whales defined along the undulating ridges.
再說,在峰巒起伏的地方,旅客始終給包圍在那象圓形劇場的高峰中,如果有眼福的話,就可以這里那里地偶然在起伏的山脊間瞥見輪廓分明的鯨側面像。