What's more, I've detected those falling and rising currents that make up the ocean's true breathing. I've seen a molecule of salt water heat up at the surface, sink into the depths, reach maximum density at -2 degrees centigrade, then cool off, grow lighter, and rise again. At the poles you'll see the consequences of this phenomenon, and through this law of farseeing nature, you'll understand why water can freeze only at the surface!"

此外，我又注意过那些由上而下和由下而上的水流，形成真正的海洋呼吸作用。我看见了海水的分子，在水面上受到热力，沉人根深的地方，至零下二度的时候，密度到了最大，然后，温度再降低，它的重量减轻，又浮上来了。您将在极圈地方看到这种现象所产生的结果，您将了解到，冰冻作用之所以只在水面上才发生，就是由于有远见的大自然的这个规律。”

As the captain was finishing his sentence, I said to myself: "The pole! Is this brazen inpidual claiming he'll take us even to that location?"

当尼摩船长说完了他这句话的时候，我自己心中说：“极圈吗!这个大胆的人一直要把我们带到极圈中去吗!

Meanwhile the captain fell silent and stared at the element he had studied so thoroughly and unceasingly. Then, going on:

不过船长这时不作声，他全神注视他时刻不停地细心研究的海洋。一会儿他又说起话来：

"Salts," he said, "fill the sea in considerable quantities, professor, and if you removed all its dissolved saline content, you'd create a mass measuring 4,500,000 cubic leagues, which if it were spread all over the globe, would form a layer more than ten meters high. And don't think that the presence of these salts is due merely to some whim of nature. No. They make ocean water less open to evaporation and prevent winds from carrying off excessive amounts of steam, which, when condensing, would submerge the temperate zones. Salts play a leading role, the role of stabilizer for the general ecology of the globe!"

“教授，海水中盐的分量是多到了不得的，如果您把溶解在海中的盐提出来，您可以造成一个四百五十万立方里的体积的盐堆，在地球上全面滩开来;可以铺成十来高的一层表皮。您不要以为海中有这些盐是大自然无意识的任性行为!不是的。盐质使海永不容易蒸发，使海风不能将分量过多的水汽带走，不然的话，水汽重化为水，简直就要把温带地方完全淹没了。这真是巨大得了不得的作用，是调节全地球的力量，使其保持平衡的伟大作用!”

Captain Nemo stopped, straightened up, took a few steps along the platform, and returned to me:

尼摩船长不作声了，站起来，在乎台上走了几步，又向我走回来。他说：

"As for those billions of tiny animals," he went on, "those infusoria that live by the millions in one droplet of water, 800,000 of which are needed to weigh one milligram, their role is no less important.

“至于那些原生秒水虫，那些一滴水中便有亿千万的不可计数的微生动物，它们在一毫克的水量中便有八十万个，它们的作用也是一样重要。