Just this, captain. In going toward the ocean's lower strata, we know that vegetable life disappears more quickly than animal life.

船长，人们所知道的情形是这样。人们知道，深入到海洋下的最底层，植物比动物更不容易生长，更快地绝迹。

We know that moving creatures can still be encountered where water plants no longer grow. We know that oysters and pilgrim scallops live in 2,000 meters of water, and that Admiral McClintock, England's hero of the polar seas, pulled in a live sea star from a depth of 2,500 meters.

人们知道，在还可以碰到一些生物的水层，任何一种海产植物也没有了。人们知道，有生活在二千米水深的肩挂贝，牡蛎类，两极探险英雄麦克·格林托克。曾在北极海中二千五百米深处，采得一个星贝。

We know that the crew of the Royal Navy's Bulldog fished up a starfish from 2,620 fathoms, hence from a depth of more than one vertical league.

人们知道，英国皇家海军猛犬号的船员从二千六百二十英尺，即一海里多的深处，采得一个海星。

Would you still say, Captain Nemo, that we really know nothing?

尼摩船长，您或者会对我说，人们实是一无所知吧？

No, professor, the captain replied, I wouldn't be so discourteous. Yet I'll ask you to explain how these creatures can live at such depths?

教授，船长回答，不，我不能这样不客气，不过，我要问您，您怎样解释这些生物可以在这样深的水层生活呢？

I explain it on two grounds, I replied. In the first place, because vertical currents, which are caused by differences in the water's salinity and density, can produce enough motion to sustain the rudimentary lifestyles of sea lilies and starfish.

我用两个理由来解释，我回答，第一，因为那些上下垂直往来的水流，由海水的不同咸度和不同密度决定，发生一种运动，足以维持海百合和海星一类的原始基本生活。

True, the captain put in.

对。船长说。

In the second place, because oxygen is the basis of life, and we know that the amount of oxygen dissolved in salt water increases rather than decreases with depth, that the pressure in these lower strata helps to concentrate their oxygen content.

其次，因为氧是生命的基础，人们知道，氧溶解在海水中，并不因水深而减少，反因水深而增加，而底下水层的压力又把它压缩了。