评论
打印
Sarawak Chamber was so big, Mad Phil explained, that it almost certainly contained new passages—particularly in the roof, where no one had ever searched. Although it's tempting to think of caves as similar to mine shafts—tunnels that slope relatively straightforwardly down—natural caves are nonlinear and ex-pand and contract according to the movement of rocks, the meandering of water, the work of chaos.
疯狂菲尔解释道，砂拉越洞穴太大了，几乎可以肯定里面还有新通道--尤其是在洞顶，那里还没有人搜寻过。虽然人们很可能觉得洞穴与矿井很相似--都是斜向下的隧道--但自然洞穴是非线性的，并且是随着岩石运动、水流流淌和混乱兴起而扩张和收缩的。
Concepts of "up" and "down" assume subtler meanings underground, where directions can be utterly inverted over a few million years. If someone is exploring the down part of the cave, another caver might try looking up. And up was Mad Phil's specialty.
“上”和“下”的概念是指地下的细微差别，在几百万年的时间里，地下的方向可能会完全颠倒。如果一个探险者在探索洞穴底部，那么另一个探险者就应该试着在顶部探险。而顶部探险正是疯狂菲尔的专长。
His nickname apparently had come from a canoeing stunt during his university years, but Mad Phil was known for climbing cave walls that no one else would even attempt. He and Eavis planned to ascend into the roof of Sarawak Chamber, searching for tunnels that ran through it like hidden passages in the ceiling of a mansion.
显然，他的绰号来自他大学时代的一次皮划艇特技表演，但人们知道疯狂菲尔是因为他能够攀爬别人连试都不敢的岩壁。他和艾维斯计划爬上砂拉越洞穴的顶部，寻找贯穿其中的隧道，就像大厦天花板上隐藏的通道一样。
