THE NAUTILUS didn't change direction. For the time being, then, we had to set aside any hope of returning to European seas.

诺第留斯号行驶的方向没有改变。所以，再回到欧洲海岸去的所有希望暂时都要抛弃了。

Captain Nemo kept his prow pointing south. Where was he taking us? I was afraid to guess.

尼摩船长仍是把船头指向南方。他带我们到哪里去？我不敢设想。

That day the Nautilus crossed an odd part of the Atlantic Ocean.

这一天，诺第留斯号走过了大西洋很新奇的一部分海面。

No one is unaware of the existence of that great warm-water current known by name as the Gulf Stream.

大家知道大西洋中有那名为“漩流”的大暖流存在。

After emerging from channels off Florida, it heads toward Spitzbergen.

暖流从佛罗里达湾出未，向斯勃齐堡湾流去。

But before entering the Gulf of Mexico near latitude 44 degrees north, this current pides into two arms;

但在流入墨西哥湾之前，在北纬44度左右，暖流分为两支：

its chief arm makes for the shores of Ireland and Norway while the second flexes southward at the level of the Azores;

主流奔向爱尔兰和挪威海岸，支流弯折向南，与阿棱尔群岛在同一纬度，

then it hits the coast of Africa, sweeps in a long oval, and returns to the Caribbean Sea.

然后抵达非洲海岸，画一个长长的椭圆形，回到安的列斯群岛。

Now then, this second arm--more accurately, a collar--forms a ring of warm water around a p of cool, tranquil, motionless ocean called the Sargasso Sea.

可是，这条第二支流一一与其说是手臂般的支流，不如说是项圈一般的环流一形成许多暖流圈，把这部分冰冷、平静和不动的大西洋围绕起来，名为萨尔加斯海。

This is an actual lake in the open Atlantic, and the great current's waters take at least three years to circle it.

这是大西洋中的真正湖沼，大暖流的水要绕这湖一周，非三年的时间不成。