Now, professor, you know even better than I that nature doesn't violate good sense,

并且，教授，您比我更了解，自然造物，决不自相矛盾，

and she wouldn't give some naturally slow animal the ability to move swiftly if it hadn't a need to use that talent.

它决不使天性迟缓的动物，有快速走动的能力，因为这种能力对它并无必要。

So if the beast does exist, it's already long gone!

所以，这种动物如果存在的话，它早就跑远了！

I had no reply to this. Obviously we were just groping blindly.

听了他这话，我没法回答。很明显，我们确实是盲目地行动着。

But how else could we go about it? All the same, our chances were automatically pretty limited.

可是，又有什么办法呢？我们的机会很有限，

Yet everyone still felt confident of success, and not a sailor on board would have bet against the narwhale appearing, and soon.

不过，对于事情的成功，还没有人加以怀疑，船上没有一名水手敢打赌，说没有独角鲸，说它不会出现。

On July 20 we cut the Tropic of Capricorn at longitude 105 degrees, and by the 27th of the same month, we had cleared the equator on the 110th meridian.

7月20日南回归线正交在经度105度，同月27日我们穿过了在西经110度上的赤道线。

These bearings determined, the frigate took a more decisive westward heading and tackled the seas of the central Pacific.

此后，船便一直向西行驶，驶进太平洋的中部海中。