All right then! Imagine this weapon to be ten times stronger and the animal ten times more powerful, launch it at a speed of twenty miles per hour, multiply its mass times its velocity1, and you get just the collision we need to cause the specified catastrophe.

好吧!现在假定那武器还要厉害十倍，那动物的力量还要大十倍，如果它的前进速度是每小时二十英里，那么拿它的体重去乘它的速度平方，就能求出憧坏斯各脱亚号的那股冲击力。

So, until information becomes more abundant, I plump for a sea unicorn of colossaldimensions,

因此，在还没有得到更多的材料之前，我认为这是一只海麒麟，这只海麒麟身躯非常巨大，

no longer armed with a mere lance but with an actual spur, like ironclad frigates7 or those warships called 'rams,' whose mass and motor power it would possesssimultaneously.

身上的武装不是剑戟，而是真正的冲角，像铁甲船或战舰上所装有的那样，它同时又具备有战舰的重量和动力。

This inexplicable phenomenon is thus explained away--unless it's something elseentirely, which, despite everything that has been sighted, studied, explored and experienced, is still possible!

这样便说明了这种神秘不可解的现象。或者相反地，不管人们所见到的、所感到的是怎样，实际上什么都不是;那也是可能的。

These last words were cowardly of me; but as far as I could, I wanted to protect my professorial dignity and not lay myself open to laughter from the Americans, who when they do laugh, laugh raucously.

最后几句话只能说明我没有主见，看问题摇摆不定;这是为了在一定程度上保全我教授的身份，同时不愿意让美国人笑话，因为美国人笑起来，是笑得很厉害的。

I had left myself a loophole. Yet deep down, I had accepted the existence of the monster.

我于是自下这一条退路。其实我是承认这个怪物的存在的。