海底兩萬里 第52期 第5章 冒險活動(7)

Commander Farragut felt, and with good reason, that it was best to stay in deep waters and keep his distance from continents or islands,

法拉古艦長想得對，駛到深水的地方，

whose neighborhoods the animal always seemed to avoid "No doubt," our bosun said, "because there isn't enough water for him!"

離開這個怪物好像不愿意挨近的大陸和海島。

So the frigate kept well out when passing the Tuamotu, Marquesas, and Hawaiian Islands,

這樣也許好些，機會也許多些;可能因為接近陸地的海，對于這個怪物，還不夠深!水手長這樣說。

then cut the Tropic of Cancer at longitude 132 degrees and headed for the seas of China.

戰(zhàn)艦添了煤后，穿過帕摩圖群島、馬貴斯群島，夏威夷群島，在東經(jīng)：32度越過了北回歸線，向中國海開去。

We were finally in the area of the monster's latest antics! And in all honesty, shipboard conditions became life-threatening.

我們終于到了這個怪物最近活動的地方了!老實說。我們在船上簡直不是過生活了。

Hearts were pounding hideously, gearing up for futures full of incurableaneurysms. The entire crew suffered from a nervous excitement that it's beyond me to describe.

心跳動得太厲害了，說不定將來會得不可治療的血瘤癥。全體船員，神經(jīng)都極度緊張，那種程度，我簡直不能形容。

Nobody ate, nobody slept. Twenty times a day some error in perception, or the optical illusions of some sailor perched in the crosstrees,

大家不吃飯、不睡覺。由于了望的水手估計錯了或看錯了而引起的騷動，每天總有一二十次。

would cause intolerable anguish, and this emotion, repeated twenty times over, kept us in a state of irritability so intense that a reaction was bound to follow.

這種連續(xù)不斷的騷動，更加強了人們的緊張，以致不能不產(chǎn)生反響。