海底兩萬里 第341期 第23章 珊瑚王國(40)

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Finally, at noon, we were plowing the waves of the Red Sea.

到了中午，我們就走在紅海里面了。

The Red Sea: that great lake so famous in biblical traditions, seldom replenished by rains, fed by no important rivers, continually drained by a high rate of evaporation, its water level dropping a meter and a half every year!

紅海是《圣經(jīng)》傳說中的名湖，下雨也不涼爽，又沒有一條大河流入，過度的蒸發(fā)使水量不斷消失，平均每年有一米半厚的水面損失呢！

If it were fully landlocked like a lake, this odd gulf might dry up completely; on this score it's inferior to its neighbors, the Caspian Sea and the Dead Sea, whose levels lower only to the point where their evaporation exactly equals the amounts of water they take to their hearts.

真是奇怪的海灣，四面封閉，要是照一般湖沼的情況來說，應(yīng)當(dāng)早就完全干涸了。

I would not even attempt to understand the whim that induced Captain Nemo to take us into this gulf.

我甚至于不想了解尼摩船長的意思，他為什么決定把我們帶到這海灣中來。

But I wholeheartedly approved of the Nautilus's entering it.

我完全贊同諾第留斯號進入紅海。

It adopted a medium pace, sometimes staying on the surface, sometimes ping to avoid some ship, and so I could observe both the inside and topside of this highly unusual sea.

它以中常速度行駛，有時浮出水面，有時潛入水底，躲避往來的船只，這樣，我可以從水里面和水面上來觀察這浪新奇的海。

On February 8, as early as the first hours of daylight, Mocha appeared before us:

2月8日，這一天的早晨，摩卡港出現(xiàn)在我們面前。

a town now in ruins, whose walls would collapse at the mere sound of a cannon, and which shelters a few leafy date trees here and there.

隨后，諾第留斯號走近非洲海岸，這一帶的海就深得多了。

This once-important city used to contain six public marketplaces plus twenty-six mosques, and its walls, protected by fourteen forts, fashioned a three-kilometer girdle around it.

這里，在水晶一般清澈的海水中間，從打開的嵌板，我可以細細看那色彩鮮明的珊瑚的奇妙叢林，那披上海帶和黑角萊的華美青綠毛皮的一片片寬大巖石。