The captain glanced at the chart. Then, turning to me: 船长在地图上看了一下，然后回过来对我说：

　　The island of Ceylon, he said, is famous for its pearl fisheries. Would you be interested, Professor Aronnax, in visiting one of those fisheries? 锡兰岛：是以采珍珠闻名的地方。柯龙纳斯先生，您高兴去看采珠场吗？

　　Certainly, captain. 船长，当然高兴。

　　Fine. It's easily done. Only, when we see the fisheries, we'll see no fishermen. The annual harvest hasn't yet begun. No matter.  好，这是容易的事。不过，我们仅能看到采珠场，却看不见采珠人。每年定期的采珠现在还没有开始。

　　I'll give orders to make for the Gulf of Mannar, and we'll arrive there late tonight. 但这没关系。我吩咐船驶到马纳尔湾，夜间我们就可以到达。

　　The captain said a few words to his chief officer who went out immediately.  船长对船副说了几句话，船副立即出去。

　　Soon the Nautilus reentered its liquid element, and the pressure gauge indicated that it was staying at a depth of thirty feet. 不久诺第留斯号潜入水中，压力表指出它是在水深三十英尺的地方。

　　With the chart under my eyes, I looked for the Gulf of Mannar. I found it by the 9th parallel off the northwestern shores of Ceylon.  面前摆着地图，我找马纳尔湾。我在锡兰岛的西北海岸，纬度9度上找到了。

　　It was formed by the long curve of little Mannar Island. To reach it we had to go all the way up Ceylon's west coast. 这海湾由马纳尔小岛的延长海岸线所形成。要到这湾，必须上溯锡兰岛整个西部海岸。

　　Professor, Captain Nemo then told me, there are pearl fisheries in the Bay of Bengal, the seas of the East Indies, the seas of China and Japan,  教授，尼摩船长这时说话了，在孟加拉湾，在印度海，在中国海和日本海，

　　plus those seas south of the United States, the Gulf of Panama and the Gulf of California; but it's off Ceylon that such fishing reaps its richest rewards.  在美洲南部的海，在巴拿马湾，在加利福尼亚湾，都有人采珍珠，但采珠成绩最优良的地方是在锡兰岛。

　　No doubt we'll be arriving a little early.  我们来这里，时候是早了一些。

　　Fishermen gather in the Gulf of Mannar only during the month of March, and for thirty days some 300 boats concentrate on the lucrative harvest of these treasures from the sea.  每年三月采珠人才齐集在马纳尔湾，为期整整有三十天，他们的三百只船一齐做这种采取海中珠宝的有利事业。

　　Each boat is manned by ten oarsmen and ten fishermen.  每只船有十个划船手和十个采珠人。

　　The latter divide into two groups, dive in rotation,  采珠人分做两组，彼此轮流潜入水中，

　　and descend to a depth of twelve meters with the help of a heavy stone clutched between their feet and attached by a rope to their boat. 他们是用两只脚夹着一块很重的石头，再用一根长绳把他系在船上，他们下至十二米深的地方采珠。