For even when tranquilly swimming through the mid-day sea in a calm, with his elevated hump sun-dried as a dromedary's in the desert; even then, the whale always carries a small basin of water on his head, as under a blazing sun you will sometimes see a cavity in a rock filled up with rain.
因为即使当它悠闲地游过风平浪静的正午的海面，它那耸起的背峰给太阳晒干得象沙漠上的单峰骆驼的背峰一般的时候；即使在这种时候，鲸头上也往往带有一小盆水，一如在烈日当空的照射下，你往往会看到岩穴里灌满着一摊雨水一样。
Nor is it at all prudent for the hunter to be over curious touching the precise nature of the whale spout. It will not do for him to be peering into it, and putting his face in it. You cannot go with your pitcher to this fountain and fill it, and bring it away. For even when coming into slight contact with the outer, vapory shreds of the jet, which will often happen, your skin will feverishly smart, from the acridness of the thing so touching it. And I know one, who coming into still closer contact with the spout, whether with some scientific object in view, or otherwise, I cannot say, the skin peeled off from his cheek and arm. Wherefore, among whalemen, the spout is deemed poisonous; they try to evade it. Another thing; I have heard it said, and I do not much doubt it, that if the jet is fairly spouted into your eyes, it will blind you. The wisest thing the investigator can do then, it seems to me, is to let this deadly spout alone.
而且，猎人们根本也不会好奇得不顾一切危险，去细究一下那条大鲸的喷水究竟是怎么一种东西。要他细细地去瞧一瞧，把脸也钻进去，他是不干的。你总不能拿着一只水壶跑到这种喷泉边，把水装满后，再把它拿回来（参阅《旧约·传道书》第十二章六节："银链折断，金罐破裂，瓶子在泉旁损坏，水轮在井口破烂。"）。因为即使跟这种喷水的外围的雾气稍微接触一下，往往就会教你皮肤火辣辣的疼痛，好象碰上什么腐蚀性的东西。我还知道有这样一个人，他因为跟喷水靠得太拢，至于他究竟是怀着一种科学的目的，还是别有原因，我可说不上来，总之，他的脸上、臂上的皮肤却坼裂开来了。所以，捕鲸人总是把这种喷水看做毒性奇重的东西，大家都设法对它远而避之。还有，我听说，我对这事情也不很表怀疑，那就是，如果那喷水正好喷进了你的眼睛，准会教你眼睛瞎了。所以据我看来，专爱寻根究底的人，还是把这种可怕的喷水搁在一边为上。
Still, we can hypothesize, even if we cannot prove and establish. My hypothesis is this: that the spout is nothing but mist.
不过，尽管我们既不能证实，也不能得出结论，我们也还可以假设一番。我的假设是这样的：这种喷水其实就是雾气。