Commander Farragut felt, and with good reason, that it was best to stay in deep waters and keep his distance from continents or islands, 法拉古舰长想得对，驶到深水的地方，

whose neighborhoods the animal always seemed to avoid "No doubt," our bosun said, "because there isn't enough water for him!"

离开这个怪物好像不愿意挨近的大陆和海岛。

So the frigate kept well out when passing the Tuamotu, Marquesas, and Hawaiian Islands,

这样也许好些，机会也许多些;可能因为接近陆地的海，对于这个怪物，还不够深!水手长这样说。

then cut the Tropic of Cancer at longitude 132 degrees and headed for the seas of China.

战舰添了煤后，穿过帕摩图群岛、马贵斯群岛，夏威夷群岛，在东经：32度越过了北回归线，向中国海开去。

We were finally in the area of the monster's latest antics! And in all honesty, shipboard conditions became life-threatening.

我们终于到了这个怪物最近活动的地方了!老实说。我们在船上简直不是过生活了。

Hearts were pounding hideously, gearing up for futures full of incurableaneurysms. The entire crew suffered from a nervous excitement that it's beyond me to describe.

心跳动得太厉害了，说不定将来会得不可治疗的血瘤症。全体船员，神经都极度紧张，那种程度，我简直不能形容。

Nobody ate, nobody slept. Twenty times a day some error in perception, or the optical illusions of some sailor perched in the crosstrees,

大家不吃饭、不睡觉。由于了望的水手估计错了或看错了而引起的骚动，每天总有一二十次。

would cause intolerable anguish, and this emotion, repeated twenty times over, kept us in a state of irritability so intense that a reaction was bound to follow.

这种连续不断的骚动，更加强了人们的紧张，以致不能不产生反响。