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Of late years the Manilla rope has in the American fishery almost entirely superseded hemp as a material for whale-lines; for, though not so durable as hemp, it is stronger, and far more soft and elastic; and I will add (since there is an aesthetics in all things), is much more handsome and becoming to the boat, than hemp. Hemp is a dusky, dark fellow, a sort of Indian; but Manilla is as a golden-haired Circassian to behold.
近年来，在美国捕鲸业中，差不多完全以马尼拉索代替大麻作捕鲸索的原料；马尼拉索，虽说没有大麻那么经久耐用，却是比较结实，而且运比大麻柔韧，有弹力；我还得说，它远比大麻好看（因为一切东西都得具备一种美感），更合小艇之用。大麻好比是个灰黑的黑人，有点象个印第安人；马尼拉索却看来就象个金发的西加塞亚人（西加塞亚人——高加索人种之一，以身高，面孔椭圆，眼睛棕黄，发带栗色，兼有厚道和勇敢的特性见称。）。
The whale-line is only two thirds of an inch in thickness. At first sight, you would not think it so strong as it really is. By experiment its one and fifty yarns will each suspend a weight of one hundred and twenty pounds; so that the whole rope will bear a strain nearly equal to three tons. In length, the common sperm whale-line measures something over two hundred fathoms. Towards the stern of the boat it is spirally coiled away in the tub, not like the worm-pipe of a still though, but so as to form one round, cheese-shaped mass of densely bedded "sheaves," or layers of concentric spiralizations, without any hollow but the "heart," or minute vertical tube formed at the axis of the cheese. As the least tangle or kink in the coiling would, in running out, infallibly take somebody's arm, leg, or entire body off, the utmost precaution is used in stowing the line in its tub.
若论粗细，捕鲸索只有三分之二英寸粗。乍一看来，你准不相信它果真会那么结实。但是，试验下来，它那五十一根细股（搓绳索时，一般是把大麻搓成细股，合细股为大股，再合三股搓成绳。），却每一股吊得起一百二十磅的重量；所以，整根索子的负荷力差不多要等于三吨。至于长度，普通一根捕抹香鲸索，量起来大约可达一千二百多英尺。人们把它旋绕在船梢的桶里，不是象蒸馏器的蛇管式那般绕，而是绕成一个圆圆的、奶酪似的一层紧叠一层的“滑车轮”，也可以说是打中间往外绕，一层一层地绕上去，绕得结结实实，只有一个“芯子”，或者象在一块奶酪的中央有根细长的管子那样。因为在把索子撒出去的时候，如果稍一弄乱或者扭结在一起，就必定会把人们的手足，或者整个身子都给勒走，因此，必须极其小心地把捕鲸索堆藏在索桶里。
