廟里把一根長(zhǎng)得叫人不能置信的肋骨保存在那里,當(dāng)作一種奇跡,它放在地上彎得非常厲害,形成個(gè)大拱門(mén),那頂端,人就是站在駱駝背上,也伸手摸不到它。這根肋骨(據(jù)約翰·里奧說(shuō))據(jù)說(shuō)是早在我看到的一百年前就放在那里了。他們的歷史家們斷言,有一個(gè)預(yù)言過(guò)穆罕默德的預(yù)言家是從這個(gè)廟里出來(lái)的,有些人則毫不猶豫地主張,那個(gè)叫做約拿的先知,就是被那條大鯨在這個(gè)廟底下吐出來(lái)的。
In this Afric Temple of the Whale I leave you, reader, and if you be a Nantucketer, and a whaleman, you will silently worship there.
看書(shū)的,我就讓你呆在這座放著大鯨的非洲古廟里,我可要走了,如果你是個(gè)南塔開(kāi)特人又兼是個(gè)捕鯨人的話(huà),你準(zhǔn)會(huì)在那里悄悄地膜拜一番。
Chapter 105 Does the Whale's Magnitude Diminish? — Will He Perish?
第一百零五章 鯨的龐大身軀會(huì)縮小么?——它會(huì)滅亡嗎?
Inasmuch, then, as this Leviathan comes floundering down upon us from the head-waters of the Eternities, it may be fitly inquired, whether, in the long course of his generations, he has not degenerated from the original bulk of his sires.
這種大鯨既然是從那永遠(yuǎn)不變的河源翻騰出來(lái),突然襲擊我們,那么,似該對(duì)它適當(dāng)?shù)刈肪恳幌?,究竟在它那代代相仍的綿長(zhǎng)過(guò)程中,它那來(lái)自祖先的身軀,是否已經(jīng)有所退化了。
But upon investigation we find, that not only are the whales of the present day superior in magnitude to those whose fossil remains are found in the Tertiary system (embracing a distinct geological period prior to man), but of the whales found in that Tertiary system, those belonging to its latter formations exceed in size those of its earlier ones.
但是,根據(jù)調(diào)查所得,我們發(fā)現(xiàn):現(xiàn)代大鯨的身軀,不但在身軀宏大上超過(guò)那些在第三紀(jì)系所發(fā)現(xiàn)的化石殘?。ǖ谌o(jì)系是包括人類(lèi)出現(xiàn)以前的一種特殊的地質(zhì)年代紀(jì)),而且那些在第三紀(jì)系所發(fā)現(xiàn)的化石鯨,其體積也超過(guò)早期的化石鯨。