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How obvious it is it, too, that this necessity for the whale's rising exposes him to all the fatal hazards of the chase. For not by hook or by net could this vast leviathan be caught, when sailing a thousand fathoms beneath the sunlight. Not so much thy skill, then, O hunter, as the great necessities that strike the victory to thee!
鲸既然必需这样冒出水面来，那么，它显然就有遭到追击的一切生命攸关的危险了。因为当它游在几千英尺的海底的时候，象这样硕大无朋的大海兽，可不是用钩用网就能捕捉得到的。这样说来，猎人呵，使你获胜的，可不一定是由于你的技巧高明，而是由于它那必然的习惯了！
In man, breathing is incessantly going on—one breath only serving for two or three pulsations; so that whatever other business he has to attend to, waking or sleeping, breathe he must, or die he will. But the Sperm Whale only breathes about one seventh or Sunday of his time.
人类是一刻也不停地在呼吸的——一次呼吸只顶得上两三次脉搏跳动；所以，不管他还得去做其它什么事，醒着也好，睡着也好，他都必须呼吸，否则，他就要完蛋。可是，抹香鲸的呼吸次数却只有人类的七分之一，或者可以说，它是只在它自己的礼拜天才呼吸一次。
It has been said that the whale only breathes through his spout-hole; if it could truthfully be added that his spouts are mixed with water, then I opine we should be furnished with the reason why his sense of smell seems obliterated in him; for the only thing about him that at all answers to his nose is that identical spout-hole; and being so clogged with two elements, it could not be expected to have the power of smelling. But owing to the mystery of the spout—whether it be water or whether it be vapor—no absolute certainty can as yet be arrived at on this head. Sure it is, nevertheless, that the Sperm Whale has no proper olfactories. But what does he want of them? No roses, no violets, no Cologne-water in the sea.
刚才已经说过，大鲸是完全靠它的喷水孔呼吸的；如果可以再如实地补充一句说：它的喷口是跟水混在一起的，那么，我认为我们还得再提出理由来，说明它为什么好象没有嗅觉似的；因为它所能称为鼻子的就只是那个喷水孔；而这只喷水孔又都塞满了空气和水，怎么能指望它会有嗅觉力呢。不过由于那喷水是个谜——不知它究竟是水还是气——所以在这方面迄今还没有得出绝对肯定的结论来。尽管如此，抹香鲸却的确是没有正式的嗅觉器官的。可是，它要嗅觉器官干什么呢？海里既没有玫瑰花，又没有紫罗兰花，更没有科隆香水。
