The sponge is definitely not a plant, as some naturalists still believe, but an animal of the lowest order, a polypary inferior even to coral.  海绵并不是植物，像现在还有些…生物学家承认的那样。它是动物，不过是最低一目的动物，是比珊瑚更低的水熄丛。

　　Its animal nature isn't in doubt, and we can't accept even the views of the ancients, who regarded it as halfway between plant and animal.  它的动物性是无可怀疑的，我们不能接受古代人的意见，认为它是动植物间的中介物。

　　But I must say that naturalists are not in agreement on the structural mode of sponges.  不过我要说，关于海绵的机体组织，生物学家还没有共同一致的意见。

　　For some it's a polypary, and for others, such as Professor Milne-Edwards, it's a single, solitary individual. 有些生物学家说海绵是水熄丛：另外一些，像爱德华先生，却认为它是独立的、单一的个体。

　　The class Spongiaria contains about 300 species that are encountered in a large number of seas and even in certain streams, where they've been given the name freshwater sponges. 海绵纲大约共有三百种，大多数的海中都有，并且也生在某部分淡水流里面，被称为“河水海绵”。

　　But their waters of choice are the Red Sea and the Mediterranean near the Greek Islands or the coast of Syria.  不过海绵特别“繁殖的地方是地中海、希腊半岛、叙利亚海岸和红海一带。

　　These waters witness the reproduction and growth of soft, delicate bath sponges whose prices run as high as 150 francs apiece:  在这一带海中，那些柔软细嫩的海绵繁殖得很快，每块价值达一百五十法郎，

　　the yellow sponge from Syria, the horn sponge from Barbary, etc.  比如叙利亚的金色海绵，巴巴利亚的坚韧海绵等。

　　But since I had no hope of studying these zoophytes in the seaports of the Levant, from which we were separated by the insuperable Isthmus of Suez, I had to be content with observing them in the waters of the Red Sea. 既然我们被苏伊土地峡分开，走不过去，我不可能·在近东各港湾里来研究这些植虫动物，我只得在红海中来观察它们了。

　　So I called Conseil to my side, while at an average depth of eight to nine meters, the Nautilus slowly skimmed every beautiful rock on the easterly coast. 所以，当诺第留斯号在平均八至九米的水层，慢慢溜过这些东部海岸的美丽岩石的时候，我叫康塞尔到我身边来。