英语听书《海底两万里》第311期 第23章 珊瑚王国(8)

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　　or some overhang suspended like a chandelier, which our lamps flecked with fiery¹ sparks.  照在像水晶烛台一般安排着的、火星点缀起来的下垂花板上，

　　Amid these shrubs² of precious coral, I observed other polyps no less unusual:  时时发生魔术般迷人的力量，在珊瑚的丛枝中间，我又看到一样新奇古怪的珊瑚树，

　　melita coral, rainbow coral with jointed³ outgrowths, then a few tufts of genus Corallina, some green and others red,  海虱形珊瑚，节肢蝶形珊瑚，又有些团聚成堆的珊瑚，有的是青，有的是红，

　　actually a type of seaweed encrusted with limestone⁴ salts, which, after long disputes, naturalists⁵ have finally placed in the vegetable kingdom.  真的像是铺在石灰地上的海藻，这些珊瑚堆，生物学家经过长久的讨论后，才明确地把它们列入植物中。

　　But as one intellectual has remarked, "Here, perhaps, is the actual point where life rises humbly⁶ out of slumbering⁷ stone,  但根据一位思想家所指出，“它们或者就是生命刚从无知觉的沉睡中挣扎起来，

　　but without breaking away from its crude starting point." 又还没有完全脱离矿物的物性。

　　Finally, after two hours of walking, we reached a depth of about 300 meters, in other words, the lowermost limit at which coral can begin to form.  走了两个钟头，我们到了t9百米深的地方，那地方就是珊瑚在上面开始形成的最后边界。

　　But here it was no longer some isolated⁸ bush or a modest grove⁹ of low timber.  但在这里的，不是孤立隔开的珊瑚丛，不是低树林的丛木，

　　It was an immense forest, huge mineral vegetation, enormous petrified¹⁰ trees linked by garlands of elegant hydras from the genus Plumularia, those tropical creepers of the sea,  而是，广大的森林，巨大的矿物草木，粗大的石树，由那些海葛藤，漂亮好看的羽毛草花圈坏结合起来，

　　all decked out in shades and gleams. We passed freely under their lofty boughs¹¹, lost up in the shadows of the waves,  受到各样色彩和反光的点缀，非常好看。它们的高大树枝深入海水阴暗中不见了，我们就在下面自由自在地走过，

　　while at our feet organ-pipe coral, stony¹² coral, star coral, fungus¹³ coral, and sea anemone¹⁴ from the genus Caryophylia formed a carpet of flowers all strewn with dazzling gems¹⁵. 我们脚下有管状珊瑚，脑形贝，星状贝，菌状贝，石竹形珊瑚，形成一条花卉织成的地毯，现出光辉夺目的各种颜色。

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