day2720000 leagues under the sea

赵鹏

Chapter 7

Ned and Conseil went off somewhere for their breakfast, leaving me alone with Captain Nemo.

As soon as they had gone the Captain turned to me and said, “Now Professor, our breakfast is ready. Follow me.”

I did as the Captain asked, and soon we entered a large dining-room(餐厅).

In the center of the room was a table, full of things to eat.

I was hungry, and the food tasted good, although once again I didn’t really know what I was eating.

The Captain seemed to know what I was thinking.

“Most of these dishes are new to you,” he said. “Don’t worry—they are safe to eat.

They come from the sea.

I have stopped eating the food of the earth, and I am never ill.

My crew, who are healthy, are fed(进食)on the same food.

The sea supplies us with all our needs.”

Nemo started to describe the food in front of me.

“This, Professor, is a filet(无骨肉片) of turtle, and here are some dolphins(海豚)’ livers.

My cook is very talented.

Taste all of these dishes.

Here is some sea-cucumber(海参), and you must try some of these anemones(海葵，银莲花), which are just as good as the most delicious fruit.”

“Professor,” he continued. “You will find many books on this ship.

I am a student of science, and I have often read your book, The Depths of The Sea.

Your research has taken you far.

But you will be able to advance even more now that you are on my vessel.

You are going to visit a place of marvels(奇观).

The sea is everything.

It covers seven-tenths of the globe.

It is pure and healthy. It is love and emotion.

In the sea you find independence.

There are no masters, you are free.”

After breakfast, Captain Nemo took me on a tour of his ship.

Those last words of the Captain had had a great effect on me.

I could not deny it.

The study of the sea was my life, and he was offering me something that had no price—knowledge.

I soon found myself in an enormous library.

I had never seen so many books, and in the center there was an extremely large table, perfect for studying.

It was a library fit for a king—a library at the bottom of the sea.

“Where could one find greater solitude or silence?” asked the Captain.

“I must confess that my usual place of study is very poor compared to this. You must have six or seven thousand books here.”

“Twelve thousand, Professor.

These are the only things that connect me to the earth.

I am done with the world.

I was done with it the day that the Nautilus made its first voyage.

That’s when I bought my last books and pamphlets(小册子).

You are free to use these books, Professor.”



I thanked Captain Nemo and went up to the shelves of the library.

There were works in every language.

They contained treasures of science.

Treasures that I would profit from.

At that moment, Captain Nemo opened another door, and we went into a very large room.

As I went in I couldn’t hide my astonishment.

I entered what I can only call a museum, this time full of other kinds of treasures—of nature and art.

There were pictures of great value hanging on the wall.

I saw the works of some of the great masters of Western painting.

There were also many exhibits inside glass cases.

There were statues, precious manuscripts(手稿), and other wonders of history.

As perhaps Nemo had predicted, all of this began to impress me greatly.

“These are just some souvenirs of the world that I have left. That world is now dead to me,” said Nemo.

The Captain then went into some kind of trance(出神).

I watched his expression with interest, in silence, and then looked around the museum.

The things that he called “his souvenirs” were priceless.

I tried not to disturb the Captain, and continued my tour around his museum under the sea.

Under the elegant glass cases I saw some of the most beautiful shells that the sea could produce.

No scientist had ever had the privilege of seeing such a range of sea-shells.

I was delighted.

To estimate the value of the collection would have been impossible.

Captain Nemo must have spent millions to acquire such specimens, and I was wondering how he had got them, when I was interrupted by his words.

“Come with me, Professor. Later, I will show you how my ship works. But first, I will take you to your room.”

My room was elegant; it had a bed, a dressing-table and several other pieces of excellent furniture.

It looked like a room in a top-class hotel. I thanked my host.

“My room is next to yours,” he said.

I went into the Captain’s room, which was much more modest than mine.

A simple bed and a table.

No comforts, only things that were absolutely necessary.

He pointed to a chair, and then asked me to sit down.

Then he began to explain how the Nautilus worked.

It was fascinating(极有趣的).

He told me how the ship mapped out its route.

He also explained how the temperature, and changes in the weather, were detected.

Nemo then told me that the agent behind everything, the agent that powered the Nautilus and made it all work was electricity.

I knew that the new science of electricity