This valley is closed off to the east by a sheer wall 2,000 meters high. We arrived there on May 28, and the Nautilus lay no farther than 150 kilometers from Ireland.

这座山谷东面被一堵高2000米的陡壁封住。5月28日，我们到达了那里时，“鹦鹉螺号”距离爱尔兰岛仅有150公里。

Would Captain Nemo head up north and beach us on the British Isles? No. Much to my surprise, he went back down south and returned to European seas. As we swung around the Emerald Isle, I spotted Cape Clear for an instant, plus the lighthouse on Fastnet Rock that guides all those thousands of ships setting out from Glasgow or Liverpool.

尼摩船长会浮出水面在大不列颠群岛登陆吗？不。令我深感意外的是，他调头向南朝欧洲海开去。绕过翡翠岛时，有一阵子我望见了克里尔角和法斯特内岛上的航标灯，它照亮了从格拉斯哥或利物浦出来的上千万只轮船的航程。

An important question then popped into my head. Would the Nautilus dare to tackle the English Channel? Ned Land (who promptly reappeared after we hugged shore) never stopped questioning me. What could I answer him? Captain Nemo remained invisible. After giving the Canadian a glimpse of American shores, was he about to show me the coast of France?

这时，我想起了一个重要的问题。“鹦鹉螺号”船只敢不敢驶向英吉利海峡呢？自从我们接近陆地后，尼德·兰又出现了，他不停地问我这个问题。怎么回答他呢？尼摩船长还是一直不露面。让加拿大人遥望了美洲海岸后，难道他也想让我望一望法国海岸吗？

But the Nautilus kept gravitating southward. On May 30, in sight of Land's End, it passed between the lowermost tip of England and the Scilly Islands, which it left behind to starboard.

然而，“鹦鹉螺号”一直南下。5月30日，在船右舷，我们望见了英格兰岛极端和索尔林格岛之间的终极岛。

If it was going to enter the English Channel, it clearly needed to head east. It did not.

如果“鹦鹉螺号”想进入英吉利海峡，这时它就该直接向东行驶。可它并没有这么做。