海底兩萬里 第240期 第19章 萬尼科羅群島(2)

The day I expounded this theory to Captain Nemo, he answered me coldly:

那天，我在尼摩船長面前談我的新大陸構成的理論，他很冷淡地這樣回答我：

"The earth doesn't need new continents, but new men!"

“地球上所需要的并不是新的大陸，而是新的人!”

Sailors' luck led the Nautilus straight to Reao Island, one of the most unusual in this group, which was discovered in 1822 by Captain Bell aboard the Minerva. So I was able to study the madreporic process that has created the islands in this ocean.

在這次航行中，諾第留斯號偶然開到克列蒙端尼島—群島中最有興昧的一個島?它是1822年，曲米涅娃號船長貝爾發(fā)現(xiàn)的。我因此得以研究太平洋中的小島所構成的造礁珊瑚體系。

Madrepores, which one must guard against confusing with precious coral, clothe their tissue in a limestone crust, and their variations in structure have led my famous mentor Professor Milne-Edwards to classify them into five pisions. The tiny microscopic animals that secrete this polypary live by the billions in the depths of their cells. Their limestone deposits build up into rocks, reefs, islets, islands. In some places, they form atolls, a circular ring surrounding a lagoon or small inner lake that gaps place in contact with the sea. Elsewhere, they take the shape of barrier reefs, such as those that exist along the coasts of New Caledonia and several of the Tuamotu Islands. In still other localities, such as Réunion Island and the island of Mauritius, they build fringing reefs, high, straight walls next to which the ocean's depth is considerable.

造礁珊瑚跟普通珊瑚不能混為一談，它們的纖維組織蒙上一層石灰質的表皮，表皮構造的各種變化使我著名的老師密爾?愛德華先生把它們分為五部。這些以分泌物累積成珊瑚樹的細小微生動物，是數(shù)以億萬計地生活在細胞里面。它們分泌的石灰質逐漸累積，組成了巖石、礁石、小島、島嶼。在某一處，它們形成一個圓形的環(huán)，圍繞著一個珊瑚洲或一個內湖，邊緣有缺口，可與大海相通。在另一處，它們形成一些礁石的懸崖，跟新喀里多尼。亞海岸和帕摩圖群島好些小島所有的情形相仿。在別的地方，比如在聯(lián)合島和毛利斯島，它們筑起礁石脈，跟壁立的)高墻一樣，高墻附近的海是非常之深的。