海底兩萬里 第235期 第18章 太平洋下四千里(7)

The Nautilus's general heading was southeast, and it stayed at a depth between 100 and 150 meters. However, from lord-knows-what whim, one day it did a diagonal pe by means of its slanting fins, reaching strata located 2,000 meters underwater. The thermometer indicated a temperature of 4.25 degrees centigrade, which at this depth seemed to be a temperature common to all latitudes.

諾第留斯號所走的大方向是東南方，它所在的深度總是保持在一百米和一百五十米之間。但有一天，我不知道因?yàn)槭裁蠢碛?，它使用那兩塊縱斜機(jī)板，沿著縱斜線潛下去，一直到二千米的深度.溫度表正指攝氏4.25度，好像在這樣深度的水里，不管在什么地帶，溫度都是共同一律的：

On November 26, at three o'clock in the morning, the Nautilus cleared the Tropic of Cancer at longitude 172 degrees. On the 27th it passed in sight of the Hawaiian Islands, where the famous Captain Cook met his death on February 14, 1779. By then we had fared 4,860 leagues from our starting point. When I arrived on the platform that morning, I saw the Island of Hawaii two miles to leeward, the largest of the seven islands making up this group. I could clearly distinguish the tilled soil on its outskirts, the various mountain chains running parallel with its coastline, and its volcanoes, crowned by Mauna Kea, whose elevation is 5,000 meters above sea level. Among other specimens from these waterways, our nets brought up some peacock-tailed flabellarian coral, polyps flattened into stylish shapes and unique to this part of the ocean.

11月26日早晨三點(diǎn)， 諾第留斯號在西經(jīng)172度上越過了北回歸線。27 H，它遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)可以望見夏威夷群島， 這是1779年2日14日有名的航海家?guī)炜吮粴⑺赖牡胤?。我們自出發(fā)以來到現(xiàn)在，已經(jīng)走了四千八百六十里了。這天早晨，我上平臺望見在下鳳兩里左右的夏威夷島，它是形成這群島的七個島中最大的一個。我清楚地看到它的已經(jīng)開發(fā)地帶的邊緣，跟海岸線平行的各支山脈和拔海立千米的火山群;高聳在它上面的，是摩那羅亞火山：在這一帶海中偽其它品種中間，魚網(wǎng)還打到了孔雀扇形珊瑚，那是外形美觀的扁平水螅類，是這一部分太平洋的特產(chǎn)動物。”

The Nautilus kept to its southeasterly heading. On December 1 it cut the equator at longitude 142 degrees, and on the 4th of the same month, after a quick crossing marked by no incident, we raised the Marquesas Islands. Three miles off, in latitude 8 degrees 57' south and longitude 139 degrees 32' west, I spotted Martin Point on Nuku Hiva, chief member of this island group that belongs to France.

諾第留斯號的方向仍是向著東南方。12月1月，它在西經(jīng)142度上越過赤道線;4日，經(jīng)過順利的迅速行駛后，我們望見了馬貴斯群島。相距三海里遠(yuǎn)，在南緯8度57分， 西經(jīng)139度32分，我看見奴加衣瓦島的馬丁尖呻，這是法屬馬貴斯群島中的最重要的一個島。