英語聽書《白鯨記》第876期

Comparing the humped herds of whales with the humped herds of buffalo, which, not forty years ago, overspread by tens of thousands the prairies of Illinois and Missouri, and shook their iron manes and scowled with their thunder-clotted brows upon the sites of populous river-capitals, where now the polite broker sells you land at a dollar an inch; in such a comparison an irresistible argument would seem furnished, to show that the hunted whale cannot now escape speedy extinction.

再把這種長著背峰的鯨群跟那長著背峰的野牛群比較一番吧，這些野牛群，三四十年前，成千成萬地曼衍在伊利諾斯和密蘇里（伊利諾斯和密蘇里——美國兩個州名。）的大草原上，在如今人口稠密的近河都市的所在地上，晃起鐵絲似的鬃毛，搖擺起密布雷電似的嘴臉，可是，現(xiàn)在這些地方的土地，那些頗為客氣的掮客卻要賣你一塊錢一英寸了；這樣一比，似乎就得出了一個無可抗辯的論據(jù)，足以證明出這些被獵擊的大鯨，現(xiàn)在是逃不了要迅速滅種的命運了。

But you must look at this matter in every light. Though so short a period ago—not a good lifetime—the census of the buffalo in Illinois exceeded the census of men now in London, and though at the present day not one horn or hoof of them remains in all that region; and though the cause of this wondrous extermination was the spear of man; yet the far different nature of the whale-hunt peremptorily forbids so inglorious an end to the Leviathan. Forty men in one ship hunting the Sperm Whales for forty-eight months think they have done extremely well, and thank God, if at last they carry home the oil of forty fish. Whereas, in the days of the old Canadian and Indian hunters and trappers of the West, when the far west (in whose sunset suns still rise) was a wilderness and a virgin, the same number of moccasined men, for the same number of months, mounted on horse instead of sailing in ships, would have slain not forty, but forty thousand and more buffaloes; a fact that, if need were, could be statistically stated.

可是，你必須從各方面來詳究這個問題。雖然在以前很短的一段期間——還不及長壽人的一生——伊利諾斯的野牛數(shù)目，就超過了現(xiàn)在倫敦的人口，雖然到了現(xiàn)在，在那個地區(qū)已經(jīng)找不出它們的一只角或者一只蹄；雖然這種神速的滅種主要是人類的刀槍所造成的；然而，獵擊大鯨卻具有極其不同的方法，因而有決定性地使得大鯨不會獲致這樣一種不光榮的結(jié)果。一艘有四十個水手的船，獵擊了四十八個月的抹香鯨后，就算他們的成績干得非常不錯，而且謝天謝地，就算他們最后能夠把四十條鯨的油料帶回家來。然而，從前那些西部的加拿大和印第安獵戶以及設(shè)陷阱者，在當(dāng)時極西的地方（在那些地方沉落的太陽卻還在照耀著）正是一片蠻荒的處女地，比如說，以同樣數(shù)目的、穿著鹿皮靴的獵手，也去干同樣數(shù)目的月份，不是坐船而是騎馬，那他們所殺戮的野牛數(shù)目，一定不是四十，而是四萬，或者比四萬還要多；這種事實，如其需要的話，還可以提出統(tǒng)計數(shù)字來加以說明。

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