About midway between these islands and Iceland, it has been found that icy cold water is constantly flowing towards the Equator, at a considerable depth beneath the surface, to supply the place of the warm surface-water moving northward from the Equator. At the depth of three-quarters of a mile, the temperature of this great polar current is two degrees below the freezing point. The British terrace raises these isles out of this cold stream, and thus none but the warmer upper waters flow around the British coasts.
不列颠群岛和爱尔兰岛之间的区域被发现常有冷海水不断流向赤道，其在地表相当深的地方和向北流向赤道的热地表水进行了中和。在海面以下0·75英里的地方，这股强大的极地洋流的温度在冰点以下2摄氏度。而英国的阶地地形把这些小岛从这条冷流中托起，因此英国的海岸周边只有上层的暖流环绕。
From the middle of Telegraph Plateau an immense submarine continent, nearly as extensive as South America, stretches first southward and then towards the west, occupying the whole central area of the North Atlantic basin.
有一片面积堪比整个南美洲的广袤的水下大陆，其起点为特里瓜夫高原的中部地区，然后向南、再向西延伸，占据了整个大西洋海底腹地的中心地带。
On either side of this central continent there is a broad and deep valley. These valleys converge as they go southward, and meet in mid-ocean between the Cape Verd and the West India Islands. Of these valleys, the western is much deeper than the eastern. Its deepest parts are found midway between the Bermudas and the Azores, and off the island of Porto Rico, where the sounding-line has been carried deeper than anywhere else in the ocean. It is the deepest part of the Atlantic.
此海底大陆中部的两端是又宽又深的山谷，这些山谷向南延伸、在佛得角和西印度群岛的海中央汇合。相比较而言，处在西边的山谷比东边的山谷更幽深一些，其最深处处在百慕大群岛和亚速尔群岛中间，也是近波多黎各岛的地方。根据测深绳的测量，该区域被公认是整个大西洋地区最深的区域。
Could we transport ourselves to that point, we should stand on what is perhaps the very lowest part of the Earth's crust. We should be at least five miles below the ordinary level of the sea, surrounded on all sides by great mountains. On the north the Bermudas would be seen as lofty mountain-peaks, rising half as high again as the summits of the Alps or the Andes. On the north-east we should see the Azores as the culminating points of the central continent. Pico, their highest point, would appear, from the general level, as a mountain 400 feet higher than Mont Blanc; but from our imaginary standpoint in the lowest depths of the Atlantic, it would be six and a half miles in height—a mile higher than the highest peak of the Himalaya, the loftiest mountain on the globe.
假设我们穿越到了那儿，我们应该是站在地壳的最低处、海平面以下至少5英里的地方，四周被雄伟的大山环绕。站在此处观察的话，北边的百慕大群岛是一片高耸的山峰，高度可达阿尔卑斯山脉或安第斯山脉最高峰的一半。东北边的亚速尔群岛是海底中部大陆的高峰区域，其最高处（Pico）正常看过去的话，是一座比勃朗峰还要高400英尺的高峰；但是，如果我们从大西洋最低处的假想位置看过去的话，它会比世界上最高的山峰——珠穆朗姆峰还要高6·5英里。
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