On a Piece of Chalk

If a well were to be sunk at our feet in the midst of the city of Norwich, the diggers would very soon find themselves at work in that white substance almost too soft to be called rock, with which we are all familiar as "chalk."

假如在诺里奇城的中心、就在我们脚下打一口井，挖井的人很快就会发现自己在一种白色的物质里干活。这种东西软得几乎称不上岩石，我们大家都很熟悉，管它叫“白垩”。

Were the thin soil which covers it all washed away, a curved band of white chalk, here broader, and there narrower, might be followed diagonally across England from Lulworth in Dorset, to Flamborough Head in Yorkshire—a distance of over 280 miles as the crow flies.

如果把覆盖在它上面的薄薄一层土壤全部冲走，就会露出一条弯曲的白垩带，有的地方宽些，有的地方窄些，可以从多塞特的拉尔沃斯斜穿英格兰，一直追到约克郡的弗兰伯勒角——直线距离超过二百八十英里。

From this band to the North Sea, on the east, and the Channel, on the south, the chalk is largely hidden by other deposits; but, except in the Weald of Kent and Sussex, it enters into the very foundation of all the south-eastern counties.

从这条带子往东到北海，往南到英吉利海峡，白垩大部分被其他沉积物掩盖着；但除了肯特和萨塞克斯的威尔德地区之外，它构成了东南各郡的根基。

Attaining, as it does in some places, a thickness of more than a thousand feet, the English chalk must be admitted to be a mass of considerable magnitude. Nevertheless, it covers but an insignificant portion of the whole area occupied by the chalk formation of the globe, which has precisely the same general characters as ours, and is found in detached patches, some less, and others more extensive, than the English.

英格兰的白垩有些地方厚达一千多英尺，必须承认，这是一个相当巨大的岩体。然而，它在全球白垩岩层所占的整个面积中，只占微不足道的一小部分；全球的白垩岩层与我们的白垩具有完全相同的一般特征，分布成一片片互不相连的区域，有的比英格兰的小，有的比它大。

Chalk occurs in north-west Ireland; it stretches over a large part of France,—the chalk which underlies Paris being, in fact, a continuation of that of the London basin; it runs through Denmark and Central Europe, and extends southward to North Africa; while, eastward, it appears in the Crimea and in Syria, and may be traced as far as the shores of the Sea of Aral, in Central Asia.

白垩见于爱尔兰西北部；它覆盖了法国的大部分地区——巴黎地下的白垩，实际上就是伦敦盆地白垩的延续；它穿过丹麦和中欧，向南延伸到北非；向东，它出现在克里米亚和叙利亚，一直可以追溯到中亚的咸海之滨。

If all the points at which true chalk occurs were circumscribed, they would lie within an irregular oval about 3,000 miles in long diameter—the area of which would be as great as that of Europe, and would many times exceed that of the largest existing inland sea—the Mediterranean.

如果把真正的白垩出现的所有地点圈起来，它们会落在一个长径约三千英里的不规则椭圆之内——这个椭圆的面积会和欧洲一样大，比现存最大的内海地中海还要大许多倍。

Thus the chalk is no unimportant element in the masonry of the earth's crust, and it impresses a peculiar stamp, varying with the conditions to which it is exposed, on the scenery of the districts in which it occurs. The undulating downs and rounded coombs, covered with sweet-grassed turf, of our inland chalk country, have a peacefully domestic and mutton-suggesting prettiness, but can hardly be called either grand or beautiful. But, on our southern coasts, the wall-sided cliffs, many hundred feet high, with vast needles and pinnacles standing out in the sea, sharp and solitary enough to serve as perches for the wary cormorant, confer a wonderful beauty and grandeur upon the chalk headlands. And, in the East, chalk has its share in the formation of some of the most venerable of mountain ranges, such as the Lebanon.

可见，白垩在地壳的砌筑中绝不是无足轻重的成分；它给它所在地区的风景打上了一种独特的印记，这印记随它所处的条件而变化。我们内陆白垩地带那些起伏的丘原和圆圆的谷地，覆着青草甜美的草皮，有一种安宁的、家常的、让人联想到羊肉的秀美，但很难称得上雄伟或壮丽。然而在我们南部的海岸上，那些高达数百英尺、陡如墙壁的悬崖，以及兀立海中的巨大石针和尖峰——它们尖峭孤绝，足以充当警惕的鸬鹚的栖处——赋予白垩岬角一种奇妙的美和雄伟。而在东方，白垩也参与构成了一些最古老的山脉，比如黎巴嫩山。

What is this wide-spread component of the surface of the earth? and whence did it come?

这个广布于地球表面的组成部分是什么？它从哪里来？

You may think this no very hopeful inquiry. You may not unnaturally suppose that the attempt to solve such problems as these can lead to no result, save that of entangling the inquirer in vague speculations, incapable of refutation and of verification.

你们也许会觉得，这算不上一个很有希望的探究。你们也许会很自然地以为，试图解决这类问题，除了让探究者陷入一些既无法驳倒、也无法验证的模糊推测之外，不会有任何结果。

If such were really the case, I should have selected some other subject than a "piece of chalk" for my discourse. But, in truth, after much deliberation, I have been unable to think of any topic which would so well enable me to lead you to see how solid is the foundation upon which some of the most startling conclusions of physical science rest.

如果真是这样，我就会为这次讲演另选一个题目，而不是“一块白垩”了。但事实上，经过再三考虑，我想不出还有哪一个题目，能像它这样好地引导你们看清：物理科学某些最惊人的结论，是建立在多么坚实的基础之上的。

A great chapter of the history of the world is written in the chalk. Few passages in the history of man can be supported by such an overwhelming mass of direct and indirect evidence as that which testifies to the truth of the fragment of the history of the globe, which I hope to enable you to read, with your own eyes, to-night.

世界历史的伟大一章，就写在白垩里。人类历史中，很少有哪一段能得到如此大量的直接和间接证据的支持，像证明这一段地球历史之真实的证据那样多；而这一段，我希望今晚能让你们用自己的眼睛读出来。

Let me add, that few chapters of human history have a more profound significance for ourselves. I weigh my words well when I assert, that the man who should know the true history of the bit of chalk which every carpenter carries about in his breeches-pocket, though ignorant of all other history, is likely, if he will think his knowledge out to its ultimate results, to have a truer, and therefore a better, conception of this wonderful universe, and of man's relation to it, than the most learned student who is deep-read in the records of humanity and ignorant of those of Nature.

我还要补充一句：人类历史中，很少有哪几章对我们自己有更深远的意义。我仔细掂量过我的话，才这样断言：一个人如果知道每个木匠都揣在裤兜里的那一小块白垩的真实历史，哪怕他对其他一切历史都一无所知，只要他肯把他的知识一直想到它最终的结论，他对这个奇妙的宇宙、对人与宇宙的关系，就很可能会有一种更真实、因而也更好的认识，胜过那些饱读人类典籍、却对自然的记录一无所知的最博学的学者。

The language of the chalk is not hard to learn, not nearly so hard as Latin, if you only want to get at the broad features of the story it has to tell; and I propose that we now set to work to spell that story out together.

白垩的语言并不难学，如果你们只想了解它要讲的那个故事的大致轮廓，它远没有拉丁文那么难；我提议，现在我们就一起动手，把那个故事一个字母一个字母地拼读出来。

We all know that if we "burn" chalk the result is quicklime. Chalk, in fact, is a compound of carbonic acid gas and lime, and when you make it very hot the carbonic acid flies away and the lime is left.

我们都知道，如果把白垩“烧”一烧，结果就是生石灰。白垩实际上是碳酸气和石灰的化合物，你把它烧得很热，碳酸气就飞走了，留下石灰。

By this method of procedure we see the lime, but we do not see the carbonic acid. If, on the other hand, you were to powder a little chalk, and drop it into a good deal of strong vinegar, there would be a great bubbling and fizzing, and, finally, a clear liquid, in which no sign of chalk would appear. Here you see the carbonic acid in the bubbles; the lime, dissolved in the vinegar, vanishes from sight. There are a great many other ways of showing that chalk is essentially nothing but carbonic acid and quicklime. Chemists enunciate the result of all the experiments which prove this, by stating that chalk is almost wholly composed of "carbonate of lime."

用这种办法，我们看到了石灰，却看不到碳酸气。另一方面，如果你们把一点白垩研成粉，丢进大量的浓醋里，就会冒出许多气泡，嘶嘶作响，最后得到一种清澈的液体，里面看不出一点白垩的痕迹。这时你们在气泡里看到了碳酸气；石灰溶在醋里，从视野中消失了。还有许许多多别的方法可以表明，白垩本质上不过是碳酸气和生石灰。化学家把证明这一点的所有实验的结果概括起来，说白垩几乎完全是由“碳酸钙”组成的。

It is desirable for us to start from the knowledge of this fact, though it may not seem to help us very far towards what we seek. For carbonate of lime is a widely-spread substance, and is met with under very various conditions. All sorts of limestones are composed of more or less pure carbonate of lime. The crust which is often deposited by waters which have drained through limestone rocks, in the form of what are called stalagmites and stalactites, is carbonate of lime. Or, to take a more familiar example, the fur on the inside of a tea-kettle is carbonate of lime; and, for anything chemistry tells us to the contrary, the chalk might be a kind of gigantic fur upon the bottom of the earth-kettle, which is kept pretty hot below.

从知道这个事实出发是可取的，尽管它似乎并不能帮我们在寻求的方向上走得很远。因为碳酸钙是一种分布很广的物质，在各种各样的条件下都能遇到。各种石灰岩都是由或纯或不纯的碳酸钙组成的。流经石灰岩的水常常沉积下一层外壳，形成所谓的石笋和钟乳石，那也是碳酸钙。或者举一个更熟悉的例子，茶壶内壁的水垢就是碳酸钙；就化学所能告诉我们的而言，白垩说不定就是地球这把大水壶底上一层巨大的水垢，而这把壶底下一直烧得相当热。

Let us try another method of making the chalk tell us its own history. To the unassisted eye chalk looks simply like a very loose and open kind of stone. But it is possible to grind a slice of chalk down so thin that you can see through it—until it is thin enough, in fact, to be examined with any magnifying power that may be thought desirable. A thin slice of the fur of a kettle might be made in the same way. If it were examined microscopically, it would show itself to be a more or less distinctly laminated mineral substance, and nothing more.

让我们试试另一种方法，让白垩讲出它自己的历史。在肉眼看来，白垩不过像一种非常疏松多孔的石头。但我们可以把一片白垩磨得很薄，薄到能透过它看东西——事实上，薄到可以用任何认为合适的放大倍数去检查。水壶里的水垢也可以照样磨成薄片。如果在显微镜下检查它，它会显示出是一种或多或少分层清楚的矿物质，此外什么也没有。

But the slice of chalk presents a totally different appearance when placed under the microscope. The general mass of it is made up of very minute granules; but imbedded in this matrix, are innumerable bodies, some smaller and some larger, but, on a rough average, not more than a hundredth of an inch in diameter, having a well-defined shape and structure. A cubic inch of some specimens of chalk may contain hundreds of thousands of these bodies, compacted together with incalculable millions of the granules.

但是把白垩薄片放到显微镜下，呈现出的却是一副全然不同的样子。它的主体是由非常微小的颗粒组成的；但嵌在这种基质里的，是无数的小体，有的小些，有的大些，粗略平均起来，直径不超过百分之一英寸，有着轮廓分明的形状和结构。某些白垩标本，一立方英寸中可能含有几十万个这样的小体，与数不清的亿万颗粒紧紧压实在一起。

Let us fix our attention upon the Globigerina. It is the spoor of the game we are tracking. If we can learn what it is and what are the conditions of its existence, we shall see our way to the origin and past history of the chalk.

让我们把注意力集中在抱球虫上。它是我们所追踪的猎物留下的足迹。如果我们能弄清楚它是什么，它生存的条件是什么，我们就能找到通向白垩的起源和过去历史的道路。

A suggestion which may naturally enough present itself is, that these curious bodies are the result of some process of aggregation which has taken place in the carbonate of lime; that, just as in winter, the rime on our windows simulates the most delicate and elegantly arborescent foliage—proving that the mere mineral water may, under certain conditions, assume the outward form of organic bodies—so this mineral substance, carbonate of lime, hidden away in the bowels of the earth, has taken the shape of these chambered bodies. I am not raising a merely fanciful and unreal objection. Very learned men, in former days, have even entertained the notion that all the formed things found in rocks are of this nature; and if no such conception is at present held to be admissible, it is because long and varied experience has now shown that mineral matter never does assume the form and structure we find in fossils. If any one were to try to persuade you that an oyster-shell (which is also chiefly composed of carbonate of lime) had crystallized out of sea-water, I suppose you would laugh at the absurdity. Your laughter would be justified by the fact that all experience tends to show that oyster-shells are formed by the agency of oysters, and in no other way. And if there were no better reasons, we should be justified, on like grounds, in believing that Globigerina is not the product of anything but vital activity.

一个相当自然地会冒出来的想法是：这些奇特的小体是碳酸钙中发生的某种聚集过程的结果；正如冬天我们窗户上的白霜模仿出最纤细、最优雅的树枝状叶丛——证明单纯的矿物质水在某些条件下也可以呈现有机体的外形——同样，这种藏在地底深处的矿物质碳酸钙，也采取了这些有室小体的形状。我提出的并不只是一个凭空想象、不切实际的反驳。从前，一些非常博学的人甚至抱有这样的看法：在岩石中发现的一切有形之物都具有这种性质；如果说今天没有人认为这种看法可以接受，那是因为长期而多样的经验已经表明，矿物质从来不会呈现我们在化石中看到的那种形态和结构。如果有人想说服你们，一枚牡蛎壳（它也主要是由碳酸钙组成的）是从海水里结晶出来的，我想你们会嘲笑这种荒唐。你们的嘲笑是有道理的，因为一切经验都表明，牡蛎壳是由牡蛎造成的，而不是以别的方式。即使没有更好的理由，基于同样的根据，我们也有理由相信，抱球虫只能是生命活动的产物。

Happily, however, better evidence in proof of the organic nature of the Globigerinæ than that of analogy is forthcoming. It so happens that calcareous skeletons, exactly similar to the Globigerinæ of the chalk, are being formed, at the present moment, by minute living creatures, which flourish in multitudes, literally more numerous than the sands of the sea-shore, over a large extent of that part of the earth's surface which is covered by the ocean.

不过，幸运的是，证明抱球虫的有机本性，还有比类比更好的证据。碰巧的是，与白垩中的抱球虫完全相似的钙质骨骼，此时此刻正由一些微小的活生物形成着，它们成群繁衍，数目名副其实地比海滩上的沙粒还多，遍布地球表面被海洋覆盖的那一部分的广大区域。

The history of the discovery of these living Globigerinæ, and of the part which they play in rock-building, is singular enough. It is a discovery which, like others of no less scientific importance, has arisen, incidentally, out of work devoted to very different and exceedingly practical interests.

发现这些活的抱球虫、发现它们在造岩中所起作用的经过，是相当奇特的。这项发现，像其他一些在科学上同样重要的发现一样，是从致力于非常不同、极其实际之利益的工作中偶然产生的。

When men first took to the sea, they speedily learned to look out for shoals and rocks; and the more the burthen of their ships increased, the more imperatively necessary it became for sailors to ascertain with precision the depth of the waters they traversed. Out of this necessity grew the use of the lead and sounding-line; and, ultimately, marine-surveying, which is the recording of the form of coasts and of the depth of the sea, as ascertained by the sounding-lead, upon charts.

人类最初下海时，很快就学会了留意浅滩和礁石；船的载重越大，水手们就越迫切地需要精确地查明他们所航行的水域的深度。从这种需要中产生了测深锤和测深绳的使用；最终又产生了海洋测量，也就是把用测深锤测得的海岸形状和海水深度记录在海图上。

At the same time, it became desirable to ascertain and to indicate the nature of the sea-bottom, since this circumstance greatly affects its goodness as holding ground for anchors. Some ingenious tar, whose name deserves a better fate than the oblivion into which it has fallen, attained this object by "arming" the bottom of the lead with a lump of grease, to which more or less of the sand or mud, or broken shells, as the case might be, adhered, and was brought to the surface. But, however well adapted such an apparatus might be for rough nautical purposes, scientific accuracy could not be expected from the armed lead, and to remedy its defects (especially when applied to sounding in great depths) Lieut. Brooke, of the American Navy, some years ago invented a most ingenious machine, by which a considerable portion of the superficial layer of the sea-bottom can be scooped out and brought up, from any depth to which the lead descends.

与此同时，查明并标出海底的性质也变得很有必要，因为这一情况大大影响着海底是否便于下锚。某个聪明的水手——他的名字本该有比湮没无闻更好的命运——想出了一个办法来达到这个目的：在测深锤的底部“装上”一团油脂，于是或多或少的沙子、泥或碎贝壳——视情况而定——就粘在上面，被带到水面上来。不过，这样的装置无论多么适合粗略的航海用途，装了油脂的测深锤也不能指望有科学上的精确性；为了弥补它的缺陷（尤其是用于深海测深时），美国海军的布鲁克上尉几年前发明了一种极其巧妙的机械，借助它，无论测深锤下沉到多深，都可以把海底表层相当大的一部分挖出来、带上来。

In 1853, Lieut. Brooke obtained mud from the bottom of the North Atlantic, between Newfoundland and the Azores, at a depth of more than 10,000 feet, or two miles, by the help of this sounding apparatus. The specimens were sent for examination to Ehrenberg of Berlin, and to Bailey of West Point, and those able microscopists found that this deep-sea mud was almost entirely composed of the skeletons of living organisms—the greater proportion of these being just like the Globigerinæ already known to occur in the chalk.

1853 年，布鲁克上尉借助这种测深装置，在纽芬兰和亚速尔群岛之间、深一万多英尺即两英里的北大西洋海底，取得了海泥。标本被送给柏林的埃伦伯格和西点的贝利去检查，这两位能干的显微镜学家发现，这种深海泥几乎完全由活生物的骨骼组成——其中绝大部分恰恰就像已知存在于白垩中的抱球虫。

The result of all these operations is, that we know the contours and the nature of the surface-soil covered by the North Atlantic, for a distance of 1,700 miles from east to west, as well as we know that of any part of the dry land.

所有这些工作的结果是：对于北大西洋所覆盖的、东西长达一千七百英里的地表土壤的轮廓和性质，我们了解得就像了解陆地上任何一部分那样清楚。

Almost the whole of the bottom of this central plain (which extends for many hundred miles in a north and south direction) is covered by a fine mud, which, when brought to the surface, dries into a greyish-white friable substance. You can write with this on a blackboard, if you are so inclined; and, to the eye, it is quite like very soft, greyish chalk. Examined chemically, it proves to be composed almost wholly of carbonate of lime; and if you make a section of it, in the same way as that of the piece of chalk was made, and view it with the microscope, it presents innumerable Globigerinæ, embedded in a granular matrix.

这片中央平原（它在南北方向上延伸好几百英里）的底部几乎全部覆盖着一种细泥，拿到水面上来，就干成一种灰白色、易碎的物质。你若有兴致，可以拿它在黑板上写字；在肉眼看来，它很像非常软的灰色白垩。用化学方法检验，它几乎完全由碳酸钙组成；如果像制作那块白垩的切片一样，把它也做成切片，放在显微镜下看，就会看到无数的抱球虫，嵌在一种颗粒状的基质里。

Thus this deep-sea mud is substantially chalk. I say substantially, because there are a good many minor differences: but as these have no bearing on the question immediately before us,—which is the nature of the Globigerinæ of the chalk,—it is unnecessary to speak of them.

因此，这种深海泥实质上就是白垩。我说“实质上”，是因为两者之间还有不少细小的差别；但这些差别与我们眼前的问题——即白垩中抱球虫的本性——无关，所以不必谈了。

Globigerinæ of every size, from the smallest to the largest, are associated together in the Atlantic mud, and the chambers of many are filled by a soft animal matter. This soft substance is, in fact, the remains of the creature to which the Globigerina shell, or rather skeleton, owes its existence—and which is an animal of the simplest imaginable description. It is, in fact, a mere particle of living jelly, without defined parts of any kind—without a mouth, nerves, muscles, or distinct organs, and only manifesting its vitality to ordinary observation by thrusting out and retracting from all parts of its surface, long filamentous processes, which serve for arms and legs. Yet this amorphous particle, devoid of everything which, in the higher animals, we call organs, is capable of feeding, growing, and multiplying; of separating from the ocean the small proportion of carbonate of lime which is dissolved in sea-water; and of building up that substance into a skeleton for itself, according to a pattern which can be imitated by no other known agency.

在大西洋海泥中，从最小到最大的各种大小的抱球虫混在一起，其中许多的小室里充满了柔软的动物质。这种柔软的物质，实际上就是那种生物的遗骸——抱球虫的壳，或者不如说骨骼，就是由它造成的——而这种生物是可以想象的最简单的动物。它实际上只是一小粒活的胶质，没有任何分明的部分——没有口，没有神经、肌肉，也没有明确的器官，在一般的观察中，它显示自己有生命的唯一方式，就是从表面的各处伸出又缩回一些长长的丝状突起，用来当手当脚。然而，这一小粒无定形的东西，缺乏高等动物身上一切我们称之为器官的东西，却能够摄食、生长和繁殖；能够从海洋中分离出溶解在海水里的那一小部分碳酸钙；并能按照一种任何其他已知的作用都无法模仿的图样，把这种物质为自己建造成一副骨骼。

The notion that animals can live and flourish in the sea, at the vast depths from which apparently living Globigerinæ have been brought up, does not agree very well with our usual conceptions respecting the conditions of animal life; and it is not so absolutely impossible as it might at first sight appear to be, that the Globigerinæ of the Atlantic sea-bottom do not live and die where they are found.

认为动物能在海中、在那些看来是活的抱球虫被打捞上来的巨大深度上生活繁衍，这种想法与我们关于动物生活条件的通常观念不大相合；而且，大西洋海底的抱球虫并不是在发现它们的地方生和死的，这种可能性也并不像乍看起来那样绝对不可能。

As I have mentioned, the soundings from the great Atlantic plain are almost entirely made up of Globigerinæ, with the granules which have been mentioned, and some few other calcareous shells; but a small percentage of the chalky mud—perhaps at most some five per cent. of it—is of a different nature, and consists of shells and skeletons composed of silex, or pure flint. These silicious bodies belong partly to the lowly vegetable organisms which are called Diatomaceæ, and partly to the minute, and extremely simple, animals, termed Radiolaria. It is quite certain that these creatures do not live at the bottom of the ocean, but at its surface—where they may be obtained in prodigious numbers by the use of a properly constructed net. Hence it follows that these silicious organisms, though they are not heavier than the lightest dust, must have fallen, in some cases, through fifteen thousand feet of water, before they reached their final resting-place on the ocean floor. And, considering how large a surface these bodies expose in proportion to their weight, it is probable that they occupy a great length of time in making their burial journey from the surface of the Atlantic to the bottom.

我已经提到，从大西洋大平原上测得的样品，几乎全是由抱球虫、上面说过的那些颗粒，以及少数其他钙质的壳组成的；但这种白垩质的泥中有一小部分——也许至多百分之五左右——性质不同，由硅石即纯燧石构成的壳和骨骼组成。这些硅质的小体，一部分属于叫作硅藻的低等植物生物，一部分属于叫作放射虫的微小而极其简单的动物。可以完全肯定，这些生物不是生活在海底，而是生活在海面——用一张构造合适的网，就能在那里捞到数量惊人的它们。由此可见，这些硅质生物虽然不比最轻的尘埃重，在有些情况下却必定穿过了一万五千英尺的海水，才到达它们在洋底的最后安息之所。而考虑到这些小体的表面积与重量相比是那样大，它们从大西洋的海面到海底，走完这趟埋葬之旅，很可能要花很长的时间。

But if the Radiolaria and Diatoms are thus rained upon the bottom of the sea, from the superficial layer of its waters in which they pass their lives, it is obviously possible that the Globigerinæ may be similarly derived; and if they were so, it would be much more easy to understand how they obtain their supply of food than it is at present. Nevertheless, the positive and negative evidence all points the other way. The skeletons of the full-grown, deep-sea Globigerinæ are so remarkably solid and heavy in proportion to their surface as to seem little fitted for floating; and, as a matter of fact, they are not to be found along with the Diatoms and Radiolaria, in the uppermost stratum of the open ocean.

但是，既然放射虫和硅藻是这样从它们度过一生的表层海水中雨点般落到海底的，那么显然，抱球虫也可能是这样来的；如果是这样，要理解它们怎样获得食物供应，就比现在容易得多了。然而，正面和反面的证据都指向另一边。深海中长成的抱球虫，其骨骼与其表面相比，坚实沉重得出奇，看来很不适于漂浮；而事实上，在开阔大洋的最上层，与硅藻和放射虫在一起的，并找不到它们。

It has been observed, again, that the abundance of Globigerinæ, in proportion to other organisms of like kind, increases with the depth of the sea; and that deep-water Globigerinæ are larger than those which live in shallower parts of the sea; and such facts negative the supposition that these organisms have been swept by currents from the shallows into the deeps of the Atlantic.

人们还观察到，与其他同类生物相比，抱球虫的丰度随海的深度而增加；深水中的抱球虫比生活在较浅海域的更大；这些事实否定了这样一种设想：这些生物是被海流从大西洋的浅处冲到深处去的。

It therefore seems to be hardly doubtful that these wonderful creatures live and die at the depths in which they are found.

因此，这些奇妙的生物是在发现它们的那个深度上生和死的，这一点似乎几乎毋庸置疑。

However, the important points for us are, that the living Globigerinæ are exclusively marine animals, the skeletons of which abound at the bottom of deep seas; and that there is not a shadow of reason for believing that the habits of the Globigerinæ of the chalk differed from those of the existing species. But if this be true, there is no escaping the conclusion that the chalk itself is the dried mud of an ancient deep sea.

不过，对我们来说重要的是：活的抱球虫完全是海洋动物，它们的骨骼大量存在于深海的海底；而且没有一丝理由相信，白垩中的抱球虫的习性与现存的种类有什么不同。但如果这是真的，就无法逃避这样一个结论：白垩本身就是一片古代深海干了的海泥。

But, a few years ago, Mr. Sorby, in making a careful examination of the chalk by means of thin sections and otherwise, observed, as Ehrenberg had done before him, that much of its granular basis possesses a definite form. Comparing these formed particles with those in the Atlantic soundings, he found the two to be identical; and thus proved that the chalk, like the soundings, contains these mysterious coccoliths and coccospheres. Here was a further and a most interesting confirmation, from internal evidence, of the essential identity of the chalk with modern deep-sea mud. Globigerinæ, coccoliths, and coccospheres are found as the chief constituents of both, and testify to the general similarity of the conditions under which both have been formed.

但几年前，索比先生用薄片等方法仔细检查白垩时，像在他之前的埃伦伯格一样，注意到白垩的颗粒状基质中，有许多是具有确定形状的。他把这些有形的微粒与大西洋测深样品中的微粒相比较，发现两者完全相同；从而证明了白垩也像测深样品一样，含有这些神秘的颗石和颗石球。这是又一个、而且是极为有趣的证实，从内在的证据上证明了白垩与现代深海泥本质上是同一种东西。抱球虫、颗石和颗石球在两者中都是主要成分，证明两者形成时的条件大体相似。

The evidence furnished by the hewing, facing, and superposition of the stones of the Pyramids, that these structures were built by men, has no greater weight than the evidence that the chalk was built by Globigerinæ; and the belief that those ancient pyramid-builders were terrestrial and air-breathing creatures like ourselves, is not better based than the conviction that the chalk-makers lived in the sea.

金字塔石块的开凿、修面和叠砌所提供的证据，证明这些建筑是人造的；这证据的分量，并不比证明白垩是抱球虫造成的证据更重；而相信那些古代建造金字塔的人是像我们一样生活在陆地上、呼吸空气的生物，这一信念的根据，也并不比确信造白垩者生活在海里的根据更好。

But as our belief in the building of the Pyramids by men is not only grounded on the internal evidence afforded by these structures, but gathers strength from multitudinous collateral proofs, and is clinched by the total absence of any reason for a contrary belief; so the evidence drawn from the Globigerinæ that the chalk is an ancient sea-bottom, is fortified by innumerable independent lines of evidence; and our belief in the truth of the conclusion to which all positive testimony tends, receives the like negative justification from the fact that no other hypothesis has a shadow of foundation.

但是，正如我们相信金字塔是人造的，不仅以这些建筑本身提供的内在证据为根据，还从无数旁证中获得力量，又因为完全没有任何理由去相信相反的说法而得以确定；同样，从抱球虫得出的白垩是古代海底的证据，也由无数条独立的证据线索所加强；而我们对一切正面证据所指向的那个结论之真实性的信念，也得到了同样的反面的支持，因为没有任何别的假说有丝毫的根据。

It may be worth while briefly to consider a few of these collateral proofs that the chalk was deposited at the bottom of the sea.

简要地考察一下证明白垩是在海底沉积而成的几个旁证，也许是值得的。

The great mass of the chalk is composed, as we have seen, of the skeletons of Globigerinæ, and other simple organisms, imbedded in granular matter. Here and there, however, this hardened mud of the ancient sea reveals the remains of higher animals which have lived and died, and left their hard parts in the mud, just as the oysters die and leave their shells behind them, in the mud of the present seas.

我们已经看到，白垩的主体是由抱球虫和其他简单生物的骨骼嵌在颗粒物质中构成的。然而，这种古代海洋的硬化了的泥，到处都透露出一些高等动物的遗骸，它们生在那里，死在那里，把它们坚硬的部分留在泥里，就像如今的牡蛎死去，把它们的壳留在今天海洋的泥中一样。

There are, at the present day, certain groups of animals which are never found in fresh waters, being unable to live anywhere but in the sea. Such are the corals; those corallines which are called Polyzoa; those creatures which fabricate the lamp-shells, and are called Brachiopoda; the pearly Nautilus, and all animals allied to it; and all the forms of sea-urchins and star-fishes.

今天有某些类群的动物，从来不见于淡水中，它们除了海里，在哪里都不能生活。珊瑚就是这样；那些被称为苔藓虫的似珊瑚生物；那些造出灯贝的、叫作腕足动物的生物；珍珠鹦鹉螺以及一切与它近缘的动物；还有各种形态的海胆和海星，都是这样。

Not only are all these creatures confined to salt water at the present day; but, so far as our records of the past go, the conditions of their existence have been the same: hence, their occurrence in any deposit is as strong evidence as can be obtained, that that deposit was formed in the sea. Now the remains of animals of all the kinds which have been enumerated, occur in the chalk, in greater or less abundance; while not one of those forms of shell-fish which are characteristic of fresh water has yet been observed in it.

这些生物不仅在今天只限于咸水；而且，就我们关于过去的记录所及，它们的生存条件始终如此：因此，它们出现在任何一个沉积层中，就是那个沉积层是在海中形成的所能得到的最有力的证据。而前面列举的所有各类动物的遗骸，都或多或少地出现在白垩中；淡水所特有的那些贝类形态，却至今一种也没有在其中见到过。

When we consider that the remains of more than three thousand distinct species of aquatic animals have been discovered among the fossils of the chalk, that the great majority of them are of such forms as are now met with only in the sea, and that there is no reason to believe that any one of them inhabited fresh water—the collateral evidence that the chalk represents an ancient sea-bottom acquires as great force as the proof derived from the nature of the chalk itself. I think you will now allow that I did not overstate my case when I asserted that we have as strong grounds for believing that all the vast area of dry land, at present occupied by the chalk, was once at the bottom of the sea, as we have for any matter of history whatever; while there is no justification for any other belief.

想一想：在白垩的化石中，已经发现了三千多个不同物种的水生动物遗骸，其中绝大多数的形态如今只在海里才能见到，而且没有理由相信其中有任何一种栖息在淡水中——这样一想，证明白垩代表一片古代海底的旁证，就获得了与从白垩本身性质得出的证明同样大的力量。我想你们现在会承认，我断言下面这件事时并没有言过其实：我们有同样有力的根据相信，目前被白垩占据的那一大片陆地，曾经都在海底，就像我们有根据相信任何一件历史事实一样；而任何别的看法都没有道理。

No less certain is it that the time during which the countries we now call south-east England, France, Germany, Poland, Russia, Egypt, Arabia, Syria, were more or less completely covered by a deep sea, was of considerable duration.

同样确定的是，我们现在称为英格兰东南部、法国、德国、波兰、俄国、埃及、阿拉伯、叙利亚的这些地方，或多或少完全被一片深海覆盖的那段时间，是相当长久的。

We have already seen that the chalk is, in places, more than a thousand feet thick. I think you will agree with me, that it must have taken some time for the skeletons of animalcules of a hundredth of an inch in diameter to heap up such a mass as that. I have said that throughout the thickness of the chalk the remains of other animals are scattered. These remains are often in the most exquisite state of preservation. The valves of the shell-fishes are commonly adherent; the long spines of some of the sea-urchins, which would be detached by the smallest jar, often remain in their places. In a word, it is certain that these animals have lived and died when the place which they now occupy was the surface of as much of the chalk as had then been deposited; and that each has been covered up by the layer of Globigerinæ mud, upon which the creatures imbedded a little higher up have, in like manner, lived and died. But some of these remains prove the existence of reptiles of vast size in the chalk sea. These lived their time, and had their ancestors and descendants, which assuredly implies time, reptiles being of slow growth.

我们已经看到，白垩有些地方厚达一千多英尺。我想你们会同意我的看法：直径百分之一英寸的微小动物的骨骼，要堆积成那样一大团，必定花了一些时间。我说过，在白垩的整个厚度中，散布着其他动物的遗骸。这些遗骸常常保存得极其完好。贝类的两片壳通常还连在一起；某些海胆的长刺，稍一震动就会脱落，却常常还留在原位。总之，可以肯定，这些动物生活和死去的时候，它们现在所占的位置，正是当时已经沉积下来的那些白垩的表面；每一个都被一层抱球虫泥覆盖起来，而在这层泥上，嵌在稍高处的那些生物，又同样地生活和死去。但其中有些遗骸证明，白垩海中存在过体形巨大的爬行动物。它们度过了自己的一生，有它们的祖先和后代，这无疑意味着时间，因为爬行动物生长缓慢。

There is more curious evidence, again, that the process of covering up, or, in other words, the deposit of Globigerinæ skeletons, did not go on very fast. It is demonstrable that an animal of the cretaceous sea might die, that its skeleton might lie uncovered upon the sea-bottom long enough to lose all its outward coverings and appendages by putrefaction; and that, after this had happened, another animal might attach itself to the dead and naked skeleton, might grow to maturity, and might itself die before the calcareous mud had buried the whole.

还有一些更奇特的证据，表明覆盖的过程，或者换句话说，抱球虫骨骼的沉积，进行得并不很快。可以证明，白垩纪海洋中的一只动物死了，它的骨骼可能在海底暴露得足够久，以致因腐烂而失去了全部外层覆盖物和附属物；而在这之后，另一只动物可能附着在这具裸露的死骨骼上，长到成熟，自己也死去，然后钙质的泥才把这一切掩埋起来。

Cases of this kind are admirably described by Sir Charles Lyell. He speaks of the frequency with which geologists find in the chalk a fossilized sea-urchin, to which is attached the lower valve of a Crania. This is a kind of shell-fish, with a shell composed of two pieces, of which, as in the oyster, one is fixed and the other free.

查尔斯·莱尔爵士出色地描述过这类情形。他说，地质学家在白垩中常常发现一个海胆化石，上面附着一枚 Crania 的下壳。这是一种贝类，壳由两片组成，像牡蛎一样，其中一片固着，另一片可以活动。

"The upper valve is almost invariably wanting, though occasionally found in a perfect state of preservation in the white chalk at some distance. In this case, we see clearly that the sea-urchin first lived from youth to age, then died and lost its spines, which were carried away. Then the young Crania adhered to the bared shell, grew and perished in its turn; after which, the upper valve was separated from the lower, before the Echinus became enveloped in chalky mud."

“上壳几乎总是缺失的，不过偶尔在不远处的白垩中能找到保存完好的上壳。在这种情形下，我们清楚地看到：海胆先是从幼年活到老年，然后死去，失去了它的刺，刺被冲走了。接着，幼小的 Crania 附着在这裸露的壳上，生长，又轮到它死去；此后，上壳与下壳分离，然后这只海胆才被白垩质的泥包裹起来。”

A specimen in the Museum of Practical Geology, in London, still further prolongs the period which must have elapsed between the death of the sea-urchin, and its burial by the Globigerinæ. For the outward face of the valve of a Crania, which is attached to a sea-urchin (Micraster), is itself overrun by an incrusting coralline, which spreads thence over more or less of the surface of the sea-urchin. It follows that, after the upper valve of the Crania fell off, the surface of the attached valve must have remained exposed long enough to allow of the growth of the whole coralline, since corallines do not live imbedded in mud.

伦敦实用地质博物馆里的一件标本，把海胆死去到被抱球虫掩埋之间必定经过的时间又延长了一些。因为附着在一只海胆（Micraster）上的那枚 Crania 的壳，其外表面本身又被一片结壳的珊瑚状生物覆盖着，这片珊瑚状生物又从那里蔓延到海胆表面的或多或少的部分上。由此可见，在 Crania 的上壳脱落之后，附着的那片壳的表面必定暴露了足够长的时间，让整片珊瑚状生物得以生长，因为珊瑚状生物不能埋在泥里生活。

The progress of knowledge may, one day, enable us to deduce from such facts as these the maximum rate at which the chalk can have accumulated, and thus to arrive at the minimum duration of the chalk period. Suppose that the valve of the Crania upon which a coralline has fixed itself in the way just described, is so attached to the sea-urchin that no part of it is more than an inch above the face upon which the sea-urchin rests. Then, as the coralline could not have fixed itself, if the Crania had been covered up with chalk mud, and could not have lived had itself been so covered, it follows, that an inch of chalk mud could not have accumulated within the time between the death and decay of the soft parts of the sea-urchin and the growth of the coralline to the full size which it has attained. If the decay of the soft parts of the sea-urchin; the attachment, growth to maturity, and decay of the Crania; and the subsequent attachment and growth of the coralline, took a year (which is a low estimate enough), the accumulation of the inch of chalk must have taken more than a year: and the deposit of a thousand feet of chalk must, consequently, have taken more than twelve thousand years.

知识的进步，也许有一天能使我们从这样的事实中推出白垩可能积累的最大速率，从而得出白垩纪的最短持续时间。假定一枚 Crania 的壳——上面以刚才所说的方式固着了一片珊瑚状生物——是这样附着在海胆上的：它没有任何部分高出海胆所栖息的那个面一英寸以上。那么，既然倘若 Crania 已被白垩泥覆盖，珊瑚状生物就不可能固着上去，而倘若它自己被这样覆盖，也不可能存活，由此可见：从海胆死去、软体部分腐烂，到珊瑚状生物长到它已达到的完全大小，在这段时间里，不可能积累起一英寸的白垩泥。如果海胆软体部分的腐烂，Crania 的附着、长成和腐烂，以及随后珊瑚状生物的附着和生长，总共花了一年（这个估计已经够低的了），那么一英寸白垩的积累必定花了一年以上：因此，一千英尺白垩的沉积，必定花了一万二千年以上。

The foundation of all this calculation is, of course, a knowledge of the length of time the Crania and the coralline needed to attain their full size; and, on this head, precise knowledge is at present wanting. But there are circumstances which tend to show, that nothing like an inch of chalk has accumulated during the life of a Crania; and, on any probable estimate of the length of that life, the chalk period must have had a much longer duration than that thus roughly assigned to it.

当然，这一切计算的基础，是要知道 Crania 和珊瑚状生物长到完全大小需要多长时间；在这一点上，目前还缺乏精确的知识。但有一些情况表明，在一枚 Crania 的一生中，积累起来的白垩远不到一英寸；而根据对那一生长度的任何一种可能的估计，白垩纪持续的时间，必定比这样粗略给出的时间长得多。

Thus, not only is it certain that the chalk is the mud of an ancient sea-bottom; but it is no less certain, that the chalk sea existed during an extremely long period, though we may not be prepared to give a precise estimate of the length of that period in years. The relative duration is clear, though the absolute duration may not be definable. The attempt to affix any precise date to the period at which the chalk sea began, or ended, its existence, is baffled by difficulties of the same kind. But the relative age of the cretaceous epoch may be determined with as great ease and certainty as the long duration of that epoch.

因此，不仅可以肯定白垩是古代海底的泥，同样可以肯定的是，白垩海存在了极其漫长的一段时期，尽管我们也许还不能以年为单位给出那段时期长度的精确估计。相对的持续时间是清楚的，尽管绝对的持续时间也许无法确定。要给白垩海开始或结束存在的时期定出任何精确的日期，也会遇到同类的困难而一筹莫展。但白垩纪的相对年代，却可以像那个时代的漫长持续一样容易、一样确定地加以测定。

You will have heard of the interesting discoveries recently made, in various parts of Western Europe, of flint implements, obviously worked into shape by human hands, under circumstances which show conclusively that man is a very ancient denizen of these regions.

你们想必听说过，最近在西欧各地有一些有趣的发现：发现了一些燧石工具，显然是经人手打制成形的，而发现它们的情形确凿地表明，人类是这些地区非常古老的居民。

It has been proved that the old populations of Europe, whose existence has been revealed to us in this way, consisted of savages, such as the Esquimaux are now; that, in the country which is now France, they hunted the reindeer, and were familiar with the ways of the mammoth and the bison. The physical geography of France was in those days different from what it is now—the river Somme, for instance, having cut its bed a hundred feet deeper between that time and this; and, it is probable, that the climate was more like that of Canada or Siberia, than that of Western Europe.

已经证明，以这种方式向我们显露其存在的欧洲古老居民，是一些像如今的爱斯基摩人那样的未开化的人；在如今叫作法国的那片土地上，他们猎取驯鹿，熟悉猛犸和野牛的习性。那时法国的自然地理与现在不同——例如，从那时到现在，索姆河把它的河床切深了一百英尺；而且，那时的气候很可能更像加拿大或西伯利亚的气候，而不像西欧的。

The existence of these people is forgotten even in the traditions of the oldest historical nations. The name and fame of them had utterly vanished until a few years back; and the amount of physical change which has been effected since their day, renders it more than probable that, venerable as are some of the historical nations, the workers of the chipped flints of Hoxne or of Amiens are to them, as they are to us, in point of antiquity.

这些人的存在，甚至在最古老的有史民族的传说中都已被遗忘。他们的名字和声誉，直到几年前还完全湮没无闻；而自他们的时代以来所发生的自然变化之大，使下面这一点变得极有可能：有些有史民族固然古老可敬，但霍克斯尼或亚眠那些打制燧石的人，在古老程度上之于他们，正如他们之于我们。

But, if we assign to these hoar relics of long vanished generations of men the greatest age that can possibly be claimed for them, they are not older than the drift, or boulder clay, which, in comparison with the chalk, is but a very juvenile deposit. You need go no further than your own sea-board for evidence of this fact. At one of the most charming spots on the coast of Norfolk, Cromer, you will see the boulder clay forming a vast mass, which lies upon the chalk, and must consequently have come into existence after it. Huge boulders of chalk are, in fact, included in the clay, and have evidently been brought to the position they now occupy, by the same agency as that which has planted blocks of syenite from Norway side by side with them.

但是，即使我们给这些早已消逝的人类世代的古老遗物定出它们所可能有的最大年龄，它们也不比漂积物或称冰砾泥更古老，而冰砾泥与白垩相比，不过是一种非常年轻的沉积。要找这一事实的证据，你们不必走出自己的海岸。在诺福克海岸风景最迷人的地方之一克罗默，你们会看到冰砾泥形成了一大片，压在白垩之上，因此必定是在白垩之后形成的。事实上，泥中夹着巨大的白垩漂砾，它们显然是被同一种力量带到现在的位置上来的，这种力量也把来自挪威的正长岩块安放在它们旁边。

The chalk, then, is certainly older than the boulder clay. If you ask how much, I will again take you no further than the same spot upon your own coasts for evidence. I have spoken of the boulder clay and drift as resting upon the chalk. That is not strictly true. Interposed between the chalk and the drift is a comparatively insignificant layer, containing vegetable matter. But that layer tells a wonderful history. It is full of stumps of trees standing as they grew. Fir-trees are there with their cones, and hazel-bushes with their nuts; there stand the stools of oak and yew trees, beeches and alders. Hence this stratum is appropriately called the "forest-bed."

那么，白垩肯定比冰砾泥古老。如果你们问古老多少，我还是只带你们到你们自己海岸上的同一个地方去找证据。我说过冰砾泥和漂积物压在白垩之上。严格说来，这并不准确。在白垩和漂积物之间，夹着一层相对微不足道的、含有植物质的地层。但这一层讲述着一段奇妙的历史。它里面满是树桩，还保持着生长时的姿态。那里有带着球果的冷杉，带着坚果的榛树丛；那里立着橡树和紫杉、山毛榉和桤木的树墩。因此，这一层被恰如其分地叫作“森林层”。

It is obvious that the chalk must have been upheaved and converted into dry land, before the timber trees could grow upon it. As the bolls of some of these trees are from two to three feet in diameter, it is no less clear that the dry land thus formed remained in the same condition for long ages. And not only do the remains of stately oaks and well-grown firs testify to the duration of this condition of things, but additional evidence to the same effect is afforded by the abundant remains of elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, and other great wild beasts, which it has yielded to the zealous search of such men as the Rev. Mr. Gunn.

显然，白垩必定先被抬升起来，变成陆地，然后那些乔木才能在上面生长。由于其中有些树的树干直径达两到三英尺，同样清楚的是，这样形成的陆地在同样的状态下保持了漫长的岁月。而且，不仅那些高大的橡树和长得很好的冷杉的遗骸证明了这种状态持续之久，大量的象、犀牛、河马和其他大型野兽的遗骸——这一层在冈恩牧师先生这样热心的人的搜寻下出土了大量这类遗骸——也提供了同样的证据。

When you look at such a collection as he has formed, and bethink you that these elephantine bones did veritably carry their owners about, and these great grinders crunch, in the dark woods of which the forest-bed is now the only trace, it is impossible not to feel that they are as good evidence of the lapse of time as the annual rings of the tree-stumps.

当你们看着他收集的这样一批藏品，想到这些象骨确实曾经驮着它们的主人走来走去，这些巨大的臼齿确实曾经在那些幽暗的森林里嚼过东西——森林层如今是那些森林唯一的遗迹——你们就不能不感到，它们作为时间流逝的证据，与树桩的年轮一样确凿。

Thus you have, within the limits of your own county, proof that the chalk can justly claim a very much greater antiquity than even the oldest physical traces of mankind. But we may go further and demonstrate, by evidence of the same authority as that which testifies to the existence of the father of men, that the chalk is vastly older than Adam himself.

这样，在你们自己郡的范围之内，你们就有了证据，证明白垩可以正当地宣称自己比人类最古老的实物遗迹还要古老得多。但我们还可以更进一步，用与证明人类始祖之存在同样权威的证据来论证：白垩比亚当本人还要古老得多。

The Book of Genesis informs us that Adam, immediately upon his creation, and before the appearance of Eve, was placed in the Garden of Eden. The problem of the geographical position of Eden has greatly vexed the spirits of the learned in such matters, but there is one point respecting which, so far as I know, no commentator has ever raised a doubt. This is, that of the four rivers which are said to run out of it, Euphrates and Hiddekel are identical with the rivers now known by the names of Euphrates and Tigris.

《创世记》告诉我们，亚当一被造出来，在夏娃出现之前，就被安置在伊甸园里。伊甸园的地理位置问题，曾让这方面的饱学之士大伤脑筋；但有一点，据我所知，从来没有一位注释家提出过怀疑。那就是：据说从园中流出的四条河里，伯拉河和希底结河，就是如今以幼发拉底河和底格里斯河之名为人所知的两条河。

But the whole country in which these mighty rivers take their origin, and through which they run, is composed of rocks which are either of the same age as the chalk, or of later date. So that the chalk must not only have been formed, but, after its formation, the time required for the deposit of these later rocks, and for their upheaval into dry land, must have elapsed, before the smallest brook which feeds the swift stream of "the great river, the river of Babylon," began to flow.

然而，这两条大河发源和流经的整个地区，都是由与白垩同时代或更晚的岩石构成的。所以，在为“那大河，巴比伦的河”的湍流供水的最小一条溪涧开始流淌之前，不仅白垩必定已经形成，而且在它形成之后，还必定已经过去了这些较晚的岩石沉积并被抬升为陆地所需的时间。

Thus, evidence which cannot be rebutted, and which need not be strengthened, though if time permitted I might indefinitely increase its quantity, compels you to believe that the earth, from the time of the chalk to the present day, has been the theatre of a series of changes as vast in their amount, as they were slow in their progress. The area on which we stand has been first sea and then land, for at least four alternations; and has remained in each of these conditions for a period of great length.

这样，那些无法反驳、也无需加强的证据——尽管如果时间允许，我可以无限地增加它们的数量——迫使你们相信：从白垩时代到今天，地球一直是一系列变化的舞台，这些变化的规模之巨大，正如其进程之缓慢。我们所站立的这片地区，先是海，然后是陆地，至少交替了四次；而且在每一种状态下都停留了很长的一段时期。

Nor have these wonderful metamorphoses of sea into land, and of land into sea, been confined to one corner of England. During the chalk period, or "cretaceous epoch," not one of the present great physical features of the globe was in existence. Our great mountain ranges, Pyrenees, Alps, Himalayas, Andes, have all been upheaved since the chalk was deposited, and the cretaceous sea flowed over the sites of Sinai and Ararat.

这些海变成陆、陆变成海的奇妙变迁，也并不只限于英格兰的一个角落。在白垩时期，即“白垩纪”，地球上现在的那些巨大的自然地貌，一个也还不存在。我们的那些大山脉——比利牛斯山、阿尔卑斯山、喜马拉雅山、安第斯山——都是在白垩沉积之后才隆起的，白垩纪的海曾经流过西奈山和亚拉腊山所在的地方。

All this is certain, because rocks of cretaceous, or still later, date have shared in the elevatory movements which gave rise to these mountain chains; and may be found perched up, in some cases, many thousand feet high upon their flanks. And evidence of equal cogency demonstrates that, though, in Norfolk, the forest-bed rests directly upon the chalk, yet it does so, not because the period at which the forest grew immediately followed that at which the chalk was formed, but because an immense lapse of time, represented elsewhere by thousands of feet of rock, is not indicated at Cromer.

这一切都是确定的，因为白垩纪或更晚时代的岩石参与了造成这些山脉的隆起运动；有时可以在山的侧翼上，在几千英尺的高处找到它们。同样有力的证据表明，在诺福克，森林层虽然直接压在白垩之上，但这并不是因为森林生长的时期紧接着白垩形成的时期，而是因为一段极其漫长的时间——在别处由几千英尺的岩石所代表——在克罗默没有留下记录。

I must ask you to believe that there is no less conclusive proof that a still more prolonged succession of similar changes occurred, before the chalk was deposited. Nor have we any reason to think that the first term in the series of these changes is known. The oldest sea-beds preserved to us are sands, and mud, and pebbles, the wear and tear of rocks which were formed in still older oceans.

我必须请你们相信，同样有确凿的证据表明：在白垩沉积之前，还发生过一连串更为漫长的类似变化。而且我们也没有任何理由认为，这些变化系列的第一项已经为人所知。保存给我们的最古老的海床，是沙、泥和卵石，它们是在更古老的海洋中形成的岩石磨损下来的碎屑。

But, great as is the magnitude of these physical changes of the world, they have been accompanied by a no less striking series of modifications in its living inhabitants.

但是，世界的这些自然变化固然规模巨大，伴随着它们的，是世界上的生物居民一系列同样惊人的变化。

All the great classes of animals, beasts of the field, fowls of the air, creeping things, and things which dwell in the waters, flourished upon the globe long ages before the chalk was deposited. Very few, however, if any, of these ancient forms of animal life were identical with those which now live. Certainly not one of the higher animals was of the same species as any of those now in existence. The beasts of the field, in the days before the chalk, were not our beasts of the field, nor the fowls of the air such as those which the eye of men has seen flying, unless his antiquity dates infinitely further back than we at present surmise. If we could be carried back into those times, we should be as one suddenly set down in Australia before it was colonized. We should see mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, snails, and the like, clearly recognisable as such, and yet not one of them would be just the same as those with which we are familiar, and many would be extremely different.

所有大类的动物——田野的走兽、空中的飞鸟、地上爬的和水里游的——都在白垩沉积之前漫长的年代里就已在地球上繁盛了。然而，这些古代的动物形态，与如今生活着的形态完全相同的，即使有，也非常少。可以肯定，高等动物中没有一种与现存的任何一种属于同一物种。白垩之前那些日子里的田野走兽，不是我们的田野走兽；那时空中的飞鸟，也不是人的眼睛所见过的那种在天上飞的鸟——除非人类的古老程度比我们现在所推测的还要无限地久远。如果我们能被带回到那些时代，我们就会像一个人在澳大利亚被殖民之前突然被放到那里一样。我们会看到哺乳动物、鸟类、爬行动物、鱼类、昆虫、蜗牛之类，清清楚楚认得出它们是什么，然而其中没有一种与我们熟悉的完全一样，许多还极不相同。

From that time to the present, the population of the world has undergone slow and gradual, but incessant, changes. There has been no grand catastrophe—no destroyer has swept away the forms of life of one period, and replaced them by a totally new creation; but one species has vanished and another has taken its place; creatures of one type of structure have diminished, those of another have increased, as time has passed on. And thus, while the differences between the living creatures of the time before the chalk and those of the present day appear startling, if placed side by side, we are led from one to the other by the most gradual progress, if we follow the course of Nature through the whole series of those relics of her operations which she has left behind.

从那时到现在，世界上的生物居民经历了缓慢、渐进而又不断的变化。没有发生过什么大灾变——没有一个毁灭者把一个时期的生命形态一扫而光，再代之以一套全新的创造；而是一个物种消失了，另一个物种取代了它的位置；随着时间的推移，一种结构类型的生物减少了，另一种类型的生物增加了。因此，白垩之前那个时代的生物与今天的生物之间的差异，如果并排放在一起，看起来是惊人的；但如果我们追随自然的进程，走过她留下的她的工作的全部遗迹，我们就会被最为渐进的步子从前者引到后者。

And it is by the population of the chalk sea that the ancient and the modern inhabitants of the world are most completely connected. The groups which are dying out flourish, side by side, with the groups which are now the dominant forms of life.

而把世界的古代居民和现代居民联系得最完整的，就是白垩海的生物群。正在走向灭绝的类群，与如今占统治地位的生命形态的类群并肩繁盛。

Thus the chalk contains remains of those strange flying and swimming reptiles, the pterodactyl, the ichthyosaurus, and the plesiosaurus, which are found in no later deposits, but abounded in preceding ages. The chambered shells called ammonites and belemnites, which are so characteristic of the period preceding the cretaceous, in like manner die with it.

所以，白垩中含有那些奇异的会飞和会游的爬行动物——翼手龙、鱼龙和蛇颈龙——的遗骸，它们在任何更晚的沉积中都找不到，但在以前的年代里却大量存在。那些叫作菊石和箭石的有室贝壳，是白垩纪之前那个时期极具特征的生物，同样也随白垩纪一同消亡。

But, amongst these fading remainders of a previous state of things, are some very modern forms of life, looking like Yankee pedlars among a tribe of Red Indians. Crocodiles of modern type appear; bony fishes, many of them very similar to existing species, almost supplant the forms of fish which predominate in more ancient seas; and many kinds of living shell-fish first become known to us in the chalk. The vegetation acquires a modern aspect. A few living animals are not even distinguishable as species, from those which existed at that remote epoch. The Globigerina of the present day, for example, is not different specifically from that of the chalk; and the same may be said of many other Foraminifera. I think it probable that critical and unprejudiced examination will show that more than one species of much higher animals have had a similar longevity; but the only example which I can at present give confidently is the snake's-head lamp-shell (Terebratulina caput serpentis), which lives in our English seas and abounded (as Terebratulina striata of authors) in the chalk.

但是，在这些先前状态的日渐衰微的残余之中，也有一些非常现代的生命形态，看上去就像一群印第安人中间的扬基小贩。现代类型的鳄鱼出现了；硬骨鱼——其中许多与现存的物种非常相似——几乎取代了在更古老的海洋中占优势的那些鱼类形态；许多种现存的贝类，也是在白垩中第一次为我们所知。植被具有了现代的面貌。有少数现存的动物，甚至在物种上都与那个遥远时代存在的动物无法区分。比如今天的抱球虫，在物种上就与白垩中的没有区别；许多其他有孔虫也可以这样说。我想，审慎而不带偏见的检查很可能会表明，不止一种高等得多的动物也有过类似的长寿；但我目前能有把握地举出的唯一例子，是蛇头灯贝（Terebratulina caput serpentis），它生活在我们英国的海里，而在白垩中也大量存在（即诸作者所说的 Terebratulina striata）。

The longest line of human ancestry must hide its diminished head before the pedigree of this insignificant shell-fish. We Englishmen are proud to have an ancestor who was present at the Battle of Hastings. The ancestors of Terebratulina caput serpentis may have been present at a battle of Ichthyosauria in that part of the sea which, when the chalk was forming, flowed over the site of Hastings. While all around has changed, this Terebratulina has peacefully propagated its species from generation to generation, and stands to this day, as a living testimony to the continuity of the present with the past history of the globe.

最悠久的人类世系，在这种微不足道的贝类的谱系面前，也只好惭愧地低下头来。我们英国人以有一位参加过黑斯廷斯战役的祖先为荣。而蛇头灯贝的祖先，也许曾目睹过一场鱼龙之间的战斗，就在白垩形成之时那片流过黑斯廷斯所在之地的海里。周围的一切都变了，这种灯贝却世世代代平静地繁衍着它的物种，直到今天，它依然作为一个活的见证，证明着地球的现在与它过去的历史之间的连续。

Up to this moment I have stated, so far as I know, nothing but well-authenticated facts, and the immediate conclusions which they force upon the mind.

到此刻为止，就我所知，我陈述的只是一些确凿可靠的事实，以及它们迫使我们得出的直接结论。

But the mind is so constituted that it does not willingly rest in facts and immediate causes, but seeks always after a knowledge of the remoter links in the chain of causation.

但心智的构造是这样的：它不甘心停留在事实和直接的原因上，而总是要寻求关于因果链条中更远环节的知识。

Taking the many changes of any given spot of the earth's surface, from sea to land and from land to sea, as an established fact, we cannot refrain from asking ourselves how these changes have occurred. And when we have explained them—as they must be explained—by the alternate slow movements of elevation and depression which have affected the crust of the earth, we go still further back, and ask, Why these movements?

把地球表面任何一处从海到陆、从陆到海的多次变化当作既定的事实，我们就不能不问自己：这些变化是怎样发生的？而当我们用影响地壳的缓慢升降交替运动来解释它们——它们也必须这样来解释——之后，我们还要再往回追问：为什么会有这些运动？

I am not certain that any one can give you a satisfactory answer to that question. Assuredly I cannot. All that can be said, for certain, is, that such movements are part of the ordinary course of nature, inasmuch as they are going on at the present time. Direct proof may be given, that some parts of the land of the northern hemisphere are at this moment insensibly rising and others insensibly sinking; and there is indirect, but perfectly satisfactory, proof, that an enormous area now covered by the Pacific has been deepened thousands of feet, since the present inhabitants of that sea came into existence.

我不能肯定有谁能给你们一个令人满意的回答。我当然不能。能够确定地说的只是：这样的运动是自然的寻常进程的一部分，因为它们此刻仍在进行。可以直接证明，北半球陆地的某些部分此时此刻正在不知不觉地上升，另一些部分正在不知不觉地下沉；还有间接的、但完全令人满意的证据表明，自从太平洋现在的居民出现以来，如今被太平洋覆盖的一大片区域已经加深了几千英尺。

Thus there is not a shadow of a reason for believing that the physical changes of the globe, in past times, have been effected by other than natural causes.

因此，没有一丝理由相信，地球过去的自然变化是由自然原因以外的原因造成的。

Is there any more reason for believing that the concomitant modifications in the forms of the living inhabitants of the globe have been brought about in other ways?

那么，有没有更多的理由相信，地球上生物居民形态的伴随变化，是以别的方式造成的呢？

Before attempting to answer this question, let us try to form a distinct mental picture of what has happened in some special case.

在试图回答这个问题之前，让我们试着对某个具体的例子中发生过的事情，形成一幅清晰的心理图景。

The crocodiles are animals which, as a group, have a very vast antiquity. They abounded ages before the chalk was deposited; they throng the rivers in warm climates, at the present day. There is a difference in the form of the joints of the back-bone, and in some minor particulars, between the crocodiles of the present epoch and those which lived before the chalk; but, in the cretaceous epoch, as I have already mentioned, the crocodiles had assumed the modern type of structure. Notwithstanding this, the crocodiles of the chalk are not identically the same as those which lived in the times called "older tertiary," which succeeded the cretaceous epoch; and the crocodiles of the older tertiaries are not identical with those of the newer tertiaries, nor are these identical with existing forms. I leave open the question whether particular species may have lived on from epoch to epoch. But each epoch has had its peculiar crocodiles; though all, since the chalk, have belonged to the modern type, and differ simply in their proportions, and in such structural particulars as are discernible only to trained eyes.

鳄类作为一个类群，是极其古老的动物。在白垩沉积之前的许多年代里，它们就大量存在；今天，它们仍成群栖息在温暖气候的河流中。现代的鳄鱼与生活在白垩之前的鳄鱼，在脊椎骨关节的形状和一些次要细节上有所不同；但正如我已经提到的，在白垩纪，鳄鱼已经具有了现代类型的结构。尽管如此，白垩中的鳄鱼与继白垩纪之后、被称为“老第三纪”的时代里的鳄鱼并不完全相同；老第三纪的鳄鱼与新第三纪的也不完全相同；新第三纪的又与现存的不完全相同。至于是否有个别物种从一个时代活到了另一个时代，这个问题我暂且不论。但每个时代都有它特有的鳄鱼；尽管自白垩以来，所有的鳄鱼都属于现代类型，不同的只是它们的比例，以及那些只有训练有素的眼睛才能辨别的结构细节。

How is the existence of this long succession of different species of crocodiles to be accounted for?

这一长串不同物种的鳄鱼的存在，该怎样解释呢？

Only two suppositions seem to be open to us—Either each species of crocodile has been specially created, or it has arisen out of some pre-existing form by the operation of natural causes.

我们似乎只有两种假定可选——要么每一种鳄鱼都是被专门创造出来的，要么它是由某个先前存在的形态经自然原因的作用而产生的。

Choose your hypothesis; I have chosen mine. I can find no warranty for believing in the distinct creation of a score of successive species of crocodiles in the course of countless ages of time. Science gives no countenance to such a wild fancy; nor can even the perverse ingenuity of a commentator pretend to discover this sense, in the simple words in which the writer of Genesis records the proceedings of the fifth and sixth days of the Creation.

选择你们的假说吧；我已经选择了我的。我找不到任何根据去相信，在无数个时代的进程中，有二十来种相继出现的鳄鱼是被分别创造出来的。科学丝毫不支持这样荒唐的幻想；即使是注释家那种乖僻的机巧，也不能假装从《创世记》作者记述创世第五天和第六天之事的那些朴素的话语中，发现这样的意思。

On the other hand, I see no good reason for doubting the necessary alternative, that all these varied species have been evolved from pre-existing crocodilian forms, by the operation of causes as completely a part of the common order of nature, as those which have effected the changes of the inorganic world.

另一方面，我看不出有什么正当的理由去怀疑那个必然的另一选项：所有这些各种各样的物种，都是从先前存在的鳄类形态，经由一些原因的作用演化而来的，这些原因完全是自然的寻常秩序的一部分，正如那些造成无机世界变化的原因一样。

Few will venture to affirm that the reasoning which applies to crocodiles loses its force among other animals, or among plants. If one series of species has come into existence by the operation of natural causes, it seems folly to deny that all may have arisen in the same way.

很少有人敢断言，适用于鳄鱼的推理，到了其他动物或植物身上就失去了效力。如果有一个物种系列是经由自然原因的作用而产生的，那么否认所有物种都可能以同样的方式产生，似乎就是愚蠢的。