ON JANUARY 28, in latitude 9 degrees 4' north, when the Nautilus returned at noon to the surface of the sea, it lay in sight of land some eight miles to the west.

1月28日正午，当诺第留斯号浮上水面来的时候，它在北纬9度4分，望见西边八海里远有一块陆地。

Right off, I observed a cluster of mountains about 2,000 feet high, whose shapes were very whimsically sculpted.

我首先注意一群山岭，这群山岭约二千英尺高，山形起伏，很不整齐。

After our position fix, I reentered the lounge, and when our bearings were reported on the chart,

测定了这陆地的方位后，我回到客厅中，把测好的经纬度跟地图一对时，

I saw that we were off the island of Ceylon, that pearl dangling from the lower lobe of the Indian peninsula.

我发现我们是在锡兰岛面前了，它是挂在印度半岛下端的一颗宝珠。

I went looking in the library for a book about this island, one of the most fertile in the world.

我到图书室去找一部关于这座岛的著作，它是地球上的岛屿中最富饶的一个岛。

Sure enough, I found a volume entitled Ceylon and the Singhalese by H. C. Sirr, Esq.

我正好找到西尔所写、题名为《锡兰和锡兰人》的一部书。

Reentering the lounge, I first noted the bearings of Ceylon, on which antiquity lavished so many different names.

回到客厅中来，我首先记下锡兰的方位，并且知道古时候这岛有各种不同的名称。

It was located between latitude 5 degrees 55' and 9 degrees 49' north, and between longitude 79 degrees 42' and 82 degrees 4' east of the meridian of Greenwich;

它的位置是在北纬5度55分和9度49分2red，东经79度42分和82度4分之间，

its length is 275 miles; its maximum width, 150 miles; its circumference, 900 miles;

“岛长二百七十五英里，最宽的地方一瓦五十英里，周围900英里，

its surface area, 24,448 square miles, in other words, a little smaller than that of Ireland.

面积二万四千四百四十八平方英里，就是说，比爱尔兰岛面积小一些尼摩船长和他的副手这时候进来了。