海底兩萬里 第473期 第29章 缺少空氣(3)
After two hours of energetic work, Ned Land reentered, exhausted. He and his companions were replaced by newworkmen, including Conseil and me. The Nautilus's chief officer supervised us.
經(jīng)過兩小時(shí)的努力工作，尼德·蘭疲倦不堪地回來。他的同伴們和他，由別的人員替代，康塞爾和我，我們這次也加入。諾第留斯號(hào)的船副來指導(dǎo)我們。
The water struck me as unusually cold, but I warmed up promptly while wielding my pick. My movements were quite free, although they were executed under a pressure of thirty atmospheres.
我覺得海水特別冷，但我揮動(dòng)鐵锨，不久就暖和了。我的動(dòng)作雖然在三十度氣壓下面進(jìn)行，但是很輕松自在。
After two hours of work, reentering to snatch some food and rest, I found a noticeable difference between the clean elastic fluid supplied me by the Rouquayrol device and the Nautilus's atmosphere, which was already charged with carbon dioxide. The air hadn't been renewed in forty-eight hours, and its life-giving qualitieswere considerably weakened. Meanwhile, after twelve hours had gone by, we had removed from the outlined surface area a slice of ice only one meter thick, hence about 600 cubic meters. Assuming the same work would be accomplished every twelve hours, it would still take five nights and four days to see the undertaking through to completion.
當(dāng)我工作了兩小時(shí)，回來吃點(diǎn)東西，休息一會(huì)兒的時(shí)候，我覺得盧格羅爾氣箱供應(yīng)我的純潔空氣，跟已經(jīng)很多碳酸氣的諾第留斯號(hào)船中的大氣，很為不同?？諝庾运氖诵r(shí)來沒有調(diào)換，它的刺激興奮力量已經(jīng)很薄弱?？墒?，過了十二小時(shí)，我們?cè)诋嫵龅谋嫔?，只挖去了厚一米的冰，就是約六百立方米的冰。假定每十二小時(shí)可以做同樣工作，把這個(gè)工作好好的完成，還要五夜和四天的工夫。
"Five nights and four days!" I told my companions. "And we have oxygen in the air tanks for only two days.""Without taking into account," Ned answered, "that once we're out of this damned prison, we'll still be cooped up beneath the Ice Bank, without any possible contact with the open air!"
“五夜和四天的工夫！”我對(duì)我的同伴們說，“但在儲(chǔ)藏庫(kù)中我們只有夠用兩天的空氣”“并且，”尼德·蘭回答，“又沒有算上我們脫離了這座魔鬼監(jiān)牢后，我們可能還要被禁在冰山下，仍不能立即跟上面的大氣相交通！”
An apt remark. For who could predict the minimum time we would need to free ourselves? Before the Nautilus could return to the surface of the waves, couldn't we all die of asphyxiation? Were this ship and everyone onboard doomed to perish in this tomb of ice? It was a dreadful state of affairs. But we faced it head-on, each one of us determined to do his duty to the end.
這是正確的想法。那時(shí)誰能預(yù)料我們得救所需要的最小限度的時(shí)間是多少呢？在諾第留斯號(hào)可能回到水面之前，缺乏氧氣不是就把我們窒息死了嗎？難道這船是連同它載上的所有的人都注定死在這冰的墳?zāi)怪袉幔靠磥砬樾问挚膳?。但人人都正視它，人人都決心盡各人的責(zé)任，堅(jiān)持到底。
During the night, in line with my forecasts, a new one-meter slice was removed from this immense socket. Butin the morning, wearing my diving suit, I was crossing through the liquid mass in a temperature of -6 degrees to -7 degrees centigrade, when I noted that little by little the side walls were closing in on each other.The liquid strata farthest from the trench, not warmed by the movements of workmen and tools, were showing atendency to solidify. In the face of this imminent new danger, what would happen to our chances for salvation, and how could we prevent this liquid medium from solidifying, then cracking the Nautilus's hull like glass?
照我的預(yù)見，在夜間，又有一片一米厚的冰從這巨大的圓圈中挖去。但是，到了早晨，當(dāng)我穿上了潛水衣，在零下六、七度溫度下，走過海水時(shí)，我看到旁邊的冰墻漸漸地連接起來了。在水坑中遠(yuǎn)一點(diǎn)的水，因?yàn)槿说膭诹凸ぞ叩淖饔貌荒苁顾鼫責(zé)?，現(xiàn)出要凍結(jié)的情勢(shì)。面前發(fā)生了這個(gè)新的危險(xiǎn)，我們得救的機(jī)會(huì)將是怎樣呢？這種海水中間的凍結(jié)作用，可能把諾第留斯號(hào)的船殼像玻璃一樣壓碎，怎樣加以防止呢？
