海底兩萬里 第496期 第31章 章魚(3)
But we ourselves hadn't severed all ties with humanity. For my part, I didn't want my new and unusual researchto be buried with my bones. I had now earned the right to pen the definitive book on the sea, and sooner or later I wanted that book to see the light of day.
但我們，我們不能與人類隔絕。至于我，我不愿意把我如此奇特新穎的研究和我一起埋葬掉。我現在有權利寫一部關于真正的海洋的書，而且這本書，我更愿意讓它早些問世。
There once more, through the panels opening into these Caribbean waters ten meters below the surface of the waves, I found so many fascinating exhibits to describe in my daily notes! Among other zoophytes there were Portuguese men-of-war known by the name Physalia pelagica, like big, oblong bladders with a pearly sheen, spreading their membranes to the wind, letting their blue tentacles drift like silken threads; to the eye delightful jellyfish, to the touch actual nettles that ooze a corrosive liquid. Among the articulates there were annelid worms one and a half meters long, furnished with a pink proboscis, equipped with 1,700 organs of locomotion, snaking through the waters, and as they went, throwing off every gleam in the solar spectrum. From the fish branch there were manta rays, enormous cartilaginous fish ten feet long and weighing 600 pounds, their pectoral fin triangular, their midback slightly arched, their eyes attached to the edges of the face at the front of the head; they floated like wreckage from a ship, sometimes fastening onto our windows like opaque shutters.
目前我們還是在老地方，在安第列斯群島的水波下10米處。透過打開的嵌板，我看到了多少我應該記入我的日記的有趣海產?。≡谥蚕x動物中，有一些名叫海扁筒的船形腔腸類動物，這是一種肥大的長方形囊袋狀動物閃著螺細質光澤，在風中展開它們的膜藍色的觸須像絲線一般浮在水面上，用眼看是迷人的水母，用手摸卻是分泌著腐蝕性汁液的真正蕁麻。在節(jié)肢動物中，有一些長1米半，有一條玫瑰色的鼻子和1700個運動器官的環(huán)節(jié)動物， 它們在水中蛇行著，經過時閃著像陽光般的微光。在魚類動物中，有一些蝠鲼，這是一種長10英尺，重600磅的巨型軟骨魚，它的胸鰭是三角形的，背部中間有點駝，眼睛擠在臉部的前頂端上；它們像一條船骸一樣浮在水面上，有時又像一塊不透明的窗板一樣，擋在我們的玻璃窗前。
