23 珊瑚王国(40)
Finally, at noon, we were plowing the wa一ves of the Red Sea.
到了中午，我们就走在红海里面了。
The Red Sea: that great lake so famous in biblical traditions, seldom replenished by rains, fed by no important rivers, continually drained by a high rate of evaporation, its water level dropping a meter and a half every year!
红海是《圣经》传说中的名湖，下雨也不凉爽，又没有一条大河流入，过度的蒸发使水量不断消失，平均每年有一米半厚的水面损失呢！
If it were fully landlocked like a lake, this odd gulf might dry up completely; on this score it's inferior to its neighbors, the Caspian Sea and the Dead Sea, whose levels lower only to the point where their evaporation exactly equals the amounts of water they take to their hearts.
真是奇怪的海湾，四面封闭，要是照一般湖沼的情况来说，应当早就完全干涸了。
I would not even attempt to understand the whim that induced Captain Nemo to take us into this gulf.
我甚至于不想了解尼摩船长的意思，他为什么决定把我们带到这海湾中来。
But I wholeheartedly approved of the Nautilus's entering it.
我完全赞同诺第留斯号进入红海。
It adopted a medium pace, sometimes staying on the surface, sometimes ping to a一void some ship, and so I could observe both the inside and topside of this highly unusual sea.
它以中常速度行驶，有时浮出一水面，有时潜入水底，躲避往来的船只，这样，我可以从水里面和水面上来观察这一浪一新奇的海。
On February 8, as early as the first hours of daylight, Mocha appeared before us:
2月8日，这一天的早晨，摩卡港出现在我们面前。
a town now in ruins, whose walls would collapse at the mere sound of a cannon, and which shelters a few leafy date trees here and there.
随后，诺第留斯号走近非洲海岸，这一带的海就深得多了。
This once-important city used to contain six public marketplaces plus twenty-six mosques, and its walls, protected by fourteen forts, fashioned a three-kilometer girdle around it.
这里，在水晶一般清澈的海水中间，从打开的嵌板，我可以细细看那一色一彩鲜明的珊瑚的奇妙丛林，那披上海带和黑角莱的华美青绿一毛一皮的一片片宽大岩石。