It was truly enormous—an adult could reach lengths of nearly thirty feet and weigh ten tons
它确实非常庞大成年海牛可以长到近9米长，10吨重
but we are acquainted with it only because in 1741 a Russian expedition happened to be shipwrecked on the only place
但我们知道它，仅仅是由于1741年一支俄国探险队乘坐的船恰好在白令海峡的科曼多群岛失了事。
where the creatures still survived in any numbers, the remote and foggy Commander Islands in the Bering Sea.
在这个遥远的雾气重重的地方，仍生活着相当数量的海牛。
Happily, the expedition had a naturalist, Georg Steller, who was fascinated by the animal.
幸运的是，这个探险队中有一位名叫乔治.施特莱的博物学家，他对这种动物着了迷。
"He took the most copious notes," says Flannery. "He even measured the diameter of its whiskers.
“他作了大量笔记，”弗兰纳里说，“他甚至测量了它胡须的长度。
The only thing he wouldn't describe was the male genitals—though, for some reason, he was happy enough to do the female's.
他惟一不愿意描述的就是雄性海牛的生殖器——虽然不知出于何种原因，他对描述雌性海牛的生殖器却津津乐道。
He even saved a piece of skin, so we had a good idea of its texture. We weren't always so lucky."
他甚至带回了一块海牛皮，因此我们对其皮毛的肌理有了更好的了解。但我们并不总是如此运气。
The one thing Steller couldn't do was save the sea cow itself.
有一件事是施特莱力所不能及的，那就是拯救海牛本身。
Already hunted to the brink of extinction, it would be gone altogether within twenty-seven years of Steller's discovery of it.
当时由于狩猎而已经濒临灭绝的海牛，在施特莱发现它们之后的27年的时间里就逐渐完全消失了。
Many other animals, however, couldn't be included because too little is known about them.
然而，还有许多其他的动物不能列入其中，因为我们对它们了解得太少。
The Darling Downs hopping mouse, Chatham Islands swan, Ascension Island flightless crake,
达令草地的跳鼠，查塔姆珍岛的天鹅，阿森松岛的不会飞的秧鸡，
at least five types of large turtle, and many others are forever lost to us except as names.
至少5种类型的大型海龟，以及别的很多动物，除了它们的名字，我们永远无法了解更多的信息。
A great deal of extinction, Flannery and Schouten discovered, hasn't been cruel or wanton, but just kind of majestically foolish.
弗兰纳里和斯科顿发现，许多动物的灭绝，并不是由于人的残忍或肆无忌惮，而仅仅是因为他们某种冠冕堂皇的愚蠢行为。

In 1894, when a lighthouse was built on a lonely rock called Stephens Island, in the tempestuous strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand,
1894年，在新西兰南、北岛之间波涛汹涌的海峡中，人们在一块名为斯蒂芬岛的孤零零的岩石上建了一座灯塔，
the lighthouse keeper's cat kept bringing him strange little birds that it had caught.
灯塔看守人的小猫不断给它的主人叼来古怪的小鸟。
The keeper dutifully sent some specimens to the museum in Wellington.
忠于职守的他将其中的几只送到了惠灵顿博物馆。
There a curator grew very excited because the bird was a relic species of flightless wrens
馆长大喜过望，因为这是一种遗留的不会飞的鹪鹩
the only example of a flightless perching bird ever found anywhere.
这是有史以来发现过的惟一一种适于栖立而不会飞的鸟。