The next moment, relieved in a great part from the downward strain at the bows, the boats gave a sudden bounce upwards, as a small icefield will, when a dense herd of white bears are scared from it into the sea.
隔了一会,由于船头往下牵引的力量大大地松了一松,三只小艇都蓦地往上一蹦,象是冰天雪地里突然冒出一株小柳树,把一大群熊都给吓得往海里钻一样。
Haul in! Haul in! cried Starbuck again; "he's rising."
拉起来!拉起来!斯达巴克又叫道,"它在冒起来啦。"
The lines, of which, hardly an instant before, not one hand's breadth could have been gained, were now in long quick coils flung back all dripping into the boats, and soon the whale broke water within two ship's length of the hunters.
那些刚刚还浮在水面上的、不满一托长的绳索,现在都迅速被收成长长的一圈圈、水淋滴滴地甩进艇里,那条鲸立刻便在约两只船的长度间从水里冲出来。
His motions plainly denoted his extreme exhaustion. In most land animals there are certain valves or flood-gates in many of their veins, whereby when wounded, the blood is in some degree at least instantly shut off in certain directions. Not so with the whale; one of whose peculiarities it is, to have an entire non-valvular structure of the blood-vessels, so that when pierced even by so small a point as a harpoon, a deadly drain is at once begun upon his whole arterial system; and when this is heightened by the extraordinary pressure of water at a great distance below the surface, his life may be said to pour from him in incessant streams. Yet so vast is the quantity of blood in him, and so distant and numerous its interior fountains, that he will keep thus bleeding and bleeding for a considerable period; even as in a drought a river will flow, whose source is in the well-springs of far-off and indiscernible hills.
它的动作明白地表示出它已经精疲力竭了。在陆上的大多数禽兽中,在它们那许多血管里,总有一些活瓣或者水闸这样的东西,所以当它们一旦受伤,至少都会立即在什么地方把血给煞住了。可是,鲸就不是这样,它的特点之一就是,它整个血管中,没有一个活瓣的结构,所以,甚至象标枪尖这样细小的东西一戳进它身体的时候,它整个动脉系统就立刻狂奔直流了,再加上海底水势的超常压力,它的生命可以说是象潺潺的溪流一般流个没完没了。然而因为它体内有这么许多血,体内那只喷水池又是这么长这么大,它就这样流呀流的流下去,如同一条流不干的河流,水源有如喷泉来自千山万岭、无法辨清方向的山冈。