The Nautilus adopted an average speed of twenty-six miles per hour, the speed of an express train.
諾第留斯號這時的速度是每小時二十六海里的中常速度,即特別快車的速度。
If it kept up this pace, forty hours would do it for reaching the pole.
如果它保持這個速度行駛,那么四十小時就足夠它駛到南極了。
For part of the night, the novelty of our circumstances kept Conseil and me at the lounge window.
夜間一部分時間,由于所在環(huán)境的新奇,使康塞爾和我留在客廳的玻璃邊,
The sea was lit by our beacon's electric rays.
大海受探照燈電光的照耀,晶瑩雪亮,
But the depths were deserted.
但水中荒涼,看不見什么蹤影。
Fish didn't linger in these imprisoned waters.
魚類不居留在這種監(jiān)牢般的海水中;
Here they found merely a passageway for going from the Antarctic Ocean to open sea at the pole.
它們要從南冰洋到南極那個自由通行的海,這里只有一條通路。
Our progress was swift.
我們的船行駛很迅速;
You could feel it in the vibrations of the long steel hull.
我們從長形鋼鐵船殼的振動可以感覺出來。
Near two o'clock in the morning, I went to snatch a few hours of sleep. Conseil did likewise.
早晨兩點(diǎn)左右,我要回房中休息幾小時??等麪栆埠臀乙粯樱?/p>
I didn't encounter Captain Nemo while going down the gangways.
要回房休息,穿行過道的時候,
I assumed that he was keeping to the pilothouse.
我沒有碰見尼摩船長,我想他一定在那領(lǐng)航人的籠間中了。
The next day, March 19, at five o'clock in the morning, I was back at my post in the lounge.
第二天,3月19日,早晨五點(diǎn)的時候,我又在客廳中。
The electric log indicated that the Nautilus had reduced speed.
電力側(cè)程器給我指出,諾第留斯號的速度慢了一些,
By then it was rising to the surface, but cautiously, while slowly emptying its ballast tanks.
這時,它是很小心的,慢慢排出儲水池中的水,往水而上升。
My heart was pounding. Would we emerge into the open and find the polar air again?
我的心在跳動。我們是要浮起來,找到南極的自由空氣嗎?
No. A jolt told me that the Nautilus had bumped the underbelly of the Ice Bank, still quite thick to judge from the hollowness of the accompanying noise.
不。一次沖擊,從發(fā)出了不爽朗的聲音來判斷,使我知道諾第留斯號碰上了冰山的下層冰面,這冰面還是很厚,
Indeed, we had "struck bottom," to use nautical terminology, but in the opposite direction and at a depth of 3,000 feet.
的確,用航海的語言來說,我們是撞上了,不過現(xiàn)在是方向倒轉(zhuǎn)過來,在三千英尺的深處撞上了。
That gave us 4,000 feet of ice overhead, of which 1,000 feet emerged above water.
這就是,在我們頭上有四千英尺的冰層,有一千英尺是浮出在水面。