最后，某一著名尖刻的讽刺报有一位最受欢迎的编辑先生草草了事地发表一篇文章，处理了这个怪物；

　　spurning it in the style of Hippolytus repulsing the amorous advances of his stepmother Phaedra,

　　他像夷包列提那样，在大家的笑声中，给这佳物最后一次打击、

　　and giving the creature its quietus amid a universal burst of laughter. Wit had defeated science.

　　把它结果了。于是机智战胜了科学。

　　During the first months of the year 1867, the question seemed to be buried, and it didn't seem due for resurrection,

　　在1867年头几个月里，这个问题好像是人了土，不会再复洁了。

　　when new facts were brought to the public's attention.

　　但就在这个时候，人们又听说发生了一些新的事件。

　　But now it was no longer an issue of a scientific problem to be solved, but a quite real and serious danger to be avoided.

　　现在的问题并不是一个急待解决的科学问题，而是必须认真设法避免的一个危险。

　　The question took an entirely new turn. The monster again became an islet, rock, or reef, but a runaway reef, unfixed and elusive.

　　问题带了完全不同的面貌。这个怪物变成了小岛、岩石、暗礁，但它是会奔驰的、不可捉摸的、行动莫测的暗礁。

　　On March 5, 1867, the Moravian from the Montreal Ocean Co.,

　　1867年8月5日，蒙特利奥航海公司的摩拉维安号

　　lying during the night in latitude 27 degrees 30' and longitude 72 degrees 15', ran its starboard quarter afoul of a rock marked on no charts of these waterways.

　　夜间驶到北纬27度30分、西经72度15分的地方，船右舷撞上了一座岩石，

　　Under the combined efforts of wind and 400-horsepower steam, it was traveling at a speed of thirteen knots.

　　可是，任何地图也没有记载过这一带海面上有这座岩石。由于风力的助航和四百匹马力的推动，船的速度达到每小时十三海里。