海底兩萬里 第267期 第20章 托列斯海峽(15)
STEPPING ASHORE had an exhilarating effect on me. Ned Land tested the soil with his foot, as if he were laying claim to it. Yet it had been only two months since we had become, as Captain Nemo expressed it, "passengers on the Nautilus," in other words, the literal prisoners of its commander.
我一腳踩在地上，感到一種難以形容的深刻印象，尼德·蘭拿腳試著踢一踢土地，好像要占有它似的。其實(shí)，我們作“諾第留斯號(hào)的乘客”—照尼摩船長的說法，實(shí)際上是諾第留斯號(hào)船長的俘虜—也不過僅僅兩個(gè)月。
In a few minutes we were a gunshot away from the coast. The soil was almost entirely madreporic, but certain dry stream beds were strewn with granite rubble, proving that this island was of primordial origin. The entire horizon was hidden behind a curtain of wonderful forests. Enormous trees, sometimes as high as 200 feet, were linked to each other by garlands of tropical creepers, genuine natural hammocks that swayed in a mild breeze. There were mimosas, banyan trees, beefwood, teakwood, hibiscus, screw pines, palm trees, all mingling in wild profusion; and beneath the shade of their green canopies, at the feet of their gigantic trunks, there grew orchids, leguminous plants, and ferns.
幾分鐘后，我們和島岸只有槍彈射程的距離了。土地差不多完全是由造礁珊瑚沉積形成的，但有些干涸了的急流河床，間雜有花崗石的殘余，說明這島的形成是在原始的太古時(shí)期。整個(gè)天際都由令人贊美的森林簾幕遮掩起來。許多高大的樹——其中有些樹干高達(dá)二百英尺——由葛藤把它們彼此連接起來，看來真像和風(fēng)搖擺著的天然吊床呢。這是合歡樹、無花果樹、火鳥樹、麻栗樹、木芙蓉、班達(dá)樹、棕樹,枝葉茂盛的混雜起來.在這些樹的青綠窟窿下.在它們的 的齒形樹干腳邊，叢生許多蘭科、豆科、蕨科植物。
Meanwhile, ignoring all these fine specimens of Papuan flora, the Canadian passed up the decorative in favor of the functional.
可是，加拿大人并不注意巴布亞土生植物的美麗品種，他拋開了美麗的，去追求實(shí)際有用的。
