英語聽書《白鯨記》第375期

Among the fishermen, he is indiscriminatelydesignated by all the following titles: The Whale;the Greenland Whale; the Black Whale; the GreatWhale; the True Whale; the Right Whale. There is adeal of obscurity concerning the Identity of thespecies thus multitudinously baptized. What then isthe whale, which I include in the second species ofmy Folios? It is the Great Mysticetus of the Englishnaturalists; the Greenland Whale of the EnglishWhalemen; the Baliene Ordinaire of the Frenchwhalemen; the Growlands Walfish of the Swedes. Itis the whale which for more than two centuries past has been hunted by the Dutch and Englishin the Arctic seas; it is the whale which the American fishermen have long pursued in theIndian ocean, on the Brazil Banks, on the Nor' West Coast, and various other parts of the world,designated by them Right Whale Cruising Grounds.

在捕鯨者中,它是毫無差別地被稱為下列這許多名稱的:鯨;格陵蘭鯨;黑鯨;大鯨;真鯨;露脊鯨。名目這么繁多,對于這種鯨的身份,就未免很不明確了。那么,我把它包括在我的對開型的第二類的這種鯨,究竟是一種什么鯨呢?這就是英國的博物學家們所稱的大須類鯨;英國的捕鯨者稱為格陵蘭鯨;法國的捕鯨者稱為巴利安。奧第奈爾;瑞典人稱為格羅蘭。娃魚的一種鯨。這就是過去二百多年來,荷蘭和英國的捕鯨者在北極海上所追捕的一種鯨;這就是美國的捕鯨者在印度洋,在巴西沿海,在西北沿海一帶以及其它那些被稱為"露脊鯨巡游場"的世界各處所長期獵逐的一種鯨。

Some pretend to see a difference between the Greenland whale of the English and the rightwhale of the Americans. But they precisely agree in all their grand features; nor has there yetbeen presented a single determinate fact upon which to ground a radical distinction. It is byendless subdivisions based upon the most inconclusive differences, that some departments ofnatural history become so repellingly intricate. The right whale will be elsewhere treated of atsome length, with reference to elucidating the sperm whale.BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER III. (Fin-Back).

有人想在英國的格陵蘭鯨和美國的露脊鯨間找到一種區(qū)別來。但是,他們卻正好在它們一切大特點上獲得一致的意見,而且迄今還提不出一點能起決定作用的事實,來做為這兩者間的截然不同的證據。正由于根據這種最不得要領的差別而來的無窮無盡的細分,這才把博物學史的若干部門弄得這樣糾纏不清。關于露脊鯨的問題,將在闡明抹香鯨的過程中,略為附帶論及。第一篇(對開型)　第三章(脊鰭鯨)