Why, Ned! I replied. You still aren't over your old fishing urges? 怎么。我回答，尼德，您还没有打消您哪打鲸鱼的老念头吗？

How could a whale fisherman forget his old trade, sir?  先生，打鲸鱼的人能够忘记他从前的手艺吗？

Who could ever get tired of such exciting hunting? 他能够厌倦这种捕捉所引起的激动吗？

You've never fished these seas, Ned? 尼德，您从没有在这一带海中打过鲸鱼吗？

Never, sir. Just the northernmost seas, equally in the Bering Strait and the Davis Strait. 从没有，先生。我只在北极海中打鲸鱼，就在白令海峡和台维斯海峡一带。

So the southern right whale is still unknown to you.  那么，南极的鲸鱼对您来说还是陌生的。

Until now it's the bowhead whale you've hunted, and it won't risk going past the warm waters of the equator. 您以前捕捉的都是平常的白鲸，它并木敢冒险通过赤道的温热海水。

Oh, professor, what are you feeding me? the Canadian answered in a tolerably skeptical tone. 啊！教授，您给我说什么呀？加拿大人用相当怀疑的口气回答。

I'm feeding you the facts. 我说的是事实哩。

By thunder! In '65, just two and a half years ago, I to whom you speak, I myself stepped onto the carcass of a whale near Greenland, and its flank still carried the marked harpoon of a whaling ship from the Bering Sea.  好嘛！格陵兰岛附近捕获了一条鲸鱼，它身上还带着一般白令海峡的捕鲸船所刺中的鱼叉。

Now I ask you, after it had been wounded west of America, how could this animal be killed in the east, unless it had cleared the equator and doubled Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope? 现在我要问您，鲸鱼在美洲西边被刺中了，如果它没有绕合恩角或好望角；通过赤道，它哪能死在美洲东边呢？

I agree with our friend Ned, Conseil said, and I'm waiting to hear how master will reply to him. 我跟尼德朋友的想法一样，康塞尔说，我等着听先生的答复哩。

Master will reply, my friends, that baleen whales are localized, according to species, within certain seas that they never leave.  朋友们，先生的答复是这样，鲸鱼类是有地方性的，按照种类的不同；它们定居在某处海中，并不离开。

And if one of these animals went from the Bering Strait to the Davis Strait, it's quite simply because there's some passageway from the one sea to the other, either along the coasts of Canada or Siberia. 如果有一条鲸鱼从白令海峡走到台维斯侮峡，那很简单，因为这两个海洋间一定有一条相通的水路，或在美洲海岸边，或在亚洲海岸边。

You expect us to fall for that? the Canadian asked, tipping me a wink. 要我们相信您的话吗？加拿大人闭着一只眼睛问：

If master says so, Conseil replied. 我们要相信先生的话。康塞尔回答。

Which means, the Canadian went on, since I've never fished these waterways, I don't know the whales that frequent them? 那么，加拿大人立即又说既然我没有在这一带海中打过鲸鱼，我就不认得往来这一带海中的鲸鱼类吗？