So that for an hour or more, a thousand fathoms in the sea, he carries a surplus stock of vitality in him, just as the camel crossing the waterless desert carries a surplus supply of drink for future use in its four supplementary stomachs. The anatomical fact of this labyrinth is indisputable; and that the supposition founded upon it is reasonable and true, seems the more cogent to me, when I consider the otherwise inexplicable obstinacy of that leviathan in having his spoutings out, as the fishermen phrase it. This is what I mean. If unmolested, upon rising to the surface, the Sperm Whale will continue there for a period of time exactly uniform with all his other unmolested risings. Say he stays eleven minutes, and jets seventy times, that is, respires seventy breaths; then whenever he rises again, he will be sure to have his seventy breaths over again, to a minute. Now, if after he fetches a few breaths you alarm him, so that he sounds, he will be always dodging up again to make good his regular allowance of air. And not till those seventy breaths are told, will he finally go down to stay out his full term below. Remark, however, that in different individuals these rates are different; but in any one they are alike. Now, why should the whale thus insist upon having his spoutings out, unless it be to replenish his reservoir of air, ere descending for good?
所以在一个多钟头中，在几千英尺的海底里，它身上就另外背着一只生命的储藏器，有如骆驼越过干燥的沙漠，背着另外一只储水器以供它四只额外的胃未来之用。这种迷宫似的事实是无可置辩的；而且当我想到这种大鲸在"泻出它的喷水"（捕鲸人这样说法），具有另外一种费解的顽强性时，我就觉得，这种假设的根据，不仅又合理又正确，而且还更中肯了。这就是我所要说的。如果不受干扰的话，抹香鲸冒出水面后，它在水面上停留的时间跟它在任何不受干扰时冒出水面的时间完全一样。比如说它停留了十一分钟，喷了七十次水，那就是说，它呼吸了七十次；那么，等它在随便什么时候重新冒出来的时候，它就一定准确地再呼吸七十次。如果它刚呼吸了几下子就被你惊动了，不得不潜到水里去的话，它往往又会偷偷地再冲上来，补足它所要吸进去的气。它不做完这七十次呼吸，是不会安心地沉到海底里去的。不过，得注意，虽然不同的鲸，各有不同的呼吸次数，但作法上却是一样的。那么，鲸为什么老要这样喷出水来，难道它非得把那空气的储藏库加足了后，这才肯安定地沉下去吗？