"I'm going down after that fellow," said Mr. Winchester.
He called a boat's crew and lowered, taking his place in the bow with his rifle, while Long John sat at the tiller. He had got only a short distance from the ship when Captain Shorey ordered Gabriel after him.
"Killing5 that bear may be a bigger job than he thinks," he said. "Lower a boat, Mr. Gabriel, and lend a hand. It may be needed."
In a few minutes Gabriel was heading after the mate's boat. Neither boat hoisted6 sail. With four men at the sweeps, it was as much as the boats could do to gain on the brute7. If the bear was not making fifteen miles an hour, I'm no judge.
Mr. Winchester kept pegging8 away, his bullets knocking up water all around the animal. One ball struck the bear in the back. That decided9 the animal to change its tactics. It quit running away and turned and made directly for its enemies.
"Avast rowing," sang out the mate.
The men peaked their oars10, turned on the thwarts11, and had their first chance to watch developments, which came thick and fast. Rabid ferocity, blind fury, and deadly menace were in every line of that big white head shooting across the water toward them. The boat sat stationary12 on a dancing sea. The mate's rifle cracked repeatedly. The bullets peppered the sea, sending up little spurts13 of water all about the bear. But the beast did not notice them, never tried to dodge15, never swerved16 aside—just kept rushing for the boat with the directness of an arrow.
It was a time of keen excitement for the men in the boat. They kept glancing with an "Oh, that Blücher or night would come" expression toward Gabriel's boat, which was doing all that oars could do to get into the fray17, Big Foot Louis standing18 all the while in the bow with harpoon19 ready. The bobbing of his boat disconcerted the mate's aim. Though he was a crack shot, as he had often proved among the okchugs, I never saw him shoot so badly. But he kept banging away, and when the bear was within fifteen or twenty yards he got home a ball in its shoulder. The beast plunged20 into the air, snarling21 and clawing at the sea, then rushed again for the boat like a white streak22. It rammed23 into the boat bows-on, stuck one mighty24 paw over the gunwale, and with a snarling roar and a frothing snap of glistening25 fangs26, leaped up and tried to climb aboard.
Just at this critical instant Gabriel's boat came into action with a port helm. Louis drove a harpoon into the beast behind the shoulder—drove it up to the haft, so that the spear-head burst out on the other side. At the same moment the mate stuck the muzzle27 of his rifle almost down the bear's throat and fired. The great brute fell back into the water, clawed and plunged and roared and clashed its teeth and so, in a whirlwind of impotent fury, died.
For a moment it lay limp and still among the lapping waves, then slowly began to sink. But Louis held it up with the harpoon line and the animal was towed back to the brig. It measured over seven feet in length and weighed 1,700 pounds—a powerful, gaunt old giant, every inch bone and sinew. Mr. Winchester retrieved28 the other bear from the ice floe. It was considerably29 smaller. The pelts30 were stripped off and the carcasses thrown overboard. The skins were in good condition, despite the earliness of the season. They were stretched on frames fashioned by the cooper, and tanned.
A week or so later we sighted a lone31 bear on an ice floe making a meal off a seal it had killed. It was late in the afternoon and one had to look twice before being able to make out its white body against the background of snow-covered ice. When the brig sailed within seventy-five yards the bear raised its head for a moment, took a squint32 at the vessel33, didn't seem interested, and went on eating.
Resting his rifle on the bulwarks34 and taking careful aim, Mr. Winchester opened fire. The pattering of the bullets on the ice seemed to puzzle the bear. As it heard the missiles sing and saw the snow spurt14 up, it left the seal and began walking all about the floe on an investigation35. Finally it reared on its hind legs to its full height. While in this upright position, a bullet struck it and turned it a sudden twisting somersault. Its placid36 mood was instantly succeeded by one of ferocious37 anger. It looked toward the vessel and roared savagely38. Still the bullets fell about it, and now alive to its danger, it plunged into the sea and struck out for the polar pack a mile distant.
Mr. Winchester again lowered, with Gabriel's boat to back him up. The chase was short and swift. The boats began to overhaul40 the bear as it approached the ice, the mate's bullets splashing all about the animal, but doing no damage. As the brute was hauling itself upon the ice, a ball crashed into its back, breaking its spine41. It fell back into the water and expired in a furious flurry. A running bowline having been slipped over its neck, it was towed back to the brig.
Not long afterward42, while we were cruising in open water, a polar bear swam across the brig's stern. There was neither ice nor land in sight. Figuring the ship's deck as the center of a circle of vision about ten miles in diameter, the bear already had swum five miles, and probably quite a bit more, and it is certain he had an equal distance to go before finding any ice on which to rest. It probably had drifted south on an ice pan and was bound back for its home on the polar pack.
The bear made too tempting43 a target for the mate to resist, and he brought out his rifle and, kneeling on the quarter-deck, he took steady aim and fired. His bullet struck about two feet behind the animal. He aimed again, but changed his mind and lowered his gun.
"No," he said, "that fellow's making too fine a swim. I'll let him go."
Cleaving the water with a powerful stroke, the bear went streaking44 out of sight over the horizon. It is safe to say that before its swim ended the animal covered fifteen miles at the lowest estimate, and possibly a much greater distance.
One moonlight night a little later, while we were traveling under short sail with considerable ice about, a whale blew a short distance to windward. I was at the wheel and Mr. Landers was standing near me. "Blow!" breathed Mr. Landers softly. Suddenly the whale breached45—we could hear it distinctly as it shot up from a narrow channel between ice floes. "There she breaches47!" said Mr. Landers in the same low voice, with no particular concern. We thought the big creature merely was enjoying a moonlight frolic. It breached again. This time its body crashed upon a strip of ice and flopped48 and floundered for a moment before sliding back into the water. Then it breached half a dozen times more in rapid succession. I had never seen a whale breach46 more than once at a time, even when wounded. Mr. Landers became interested. "I wonder what's the matter with that whale," he said.
To our surprise, two other black bodies began to flash up into the moonlight about the whale. Every time the whale breached, they breached, too. They were of huge size, but nothing like so large as the whale.
Then we knew the whale was not playing, but fighting for its life. It leaped above the surface to a lesser51 and lesser height each time. Plainly it was tiring fast. When it breached the last time only its head and a small portion of its body rose into the air and both killers seemed to be hanging with a bulldog grip upon its lower jaw52. What the outcome of that desperate battle was we did not see. The whale and its savage39 assailants moved off out of eye-shot. But for some time after we had lost sight of the whale we could hear its labored53 and stertoreous breathing and its heavy splashes as it attempted to breach.
Killers, Mr. Landers told me, are themselves a species of rapacious54, carnivorous whale, whose upper and lower jaws55 are armed with sharp, saw-like teeth. They are otherwise known as the Orca gladiator, and tiger-hearted gladiators of the sea they are. The great, clumsy bowhead with no teeth with which to defend itself, whose only weapons are its flukes and its fins56, is no match for them. They attack the great creature whenever they encounter it, and when it has exhausted57 itself in its efforts to escape, they tear open its jaws and feast upon its tongue. The killer49 whale never hunts alone. It pursues its titanic58 quarry59 in couples and trios, and sometimes in veritable wolf-like packs of half a dozen. There is usually no hope for the bowhead that these relentless60 creatures mark for their prey61.
点击收听单词发音
1 floe | |
n.大片浮冰 | |
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2 hind | |
adj.后面的,后部的 | |
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3 plunging | |
adj.跳进的,突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
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4 cleaving | |
v.劈开,剁开,割开( cleave的现在分词 ) | |
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5 killing | |
n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财 | |
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6 hoisted | |
把…吊起,升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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7 brute | |
n.野兽,兽性 | |
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8 pegging | |
n.外汇钉住,固定证券价格v.用夹子或钉子固定( peg的现在分词 );使固定在某水平 | |
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9 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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10 oars | |
n.桨,橹( oar的名词复数 );划手v.划(行)( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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11 thwarts | |
阻挠( thwart的第三人称单数 ); 使受挫折; 挫败; 横过 | |
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12 stationary | |
adj.固定的,静止不动的 | |
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13 spurts | |
短暂而突然的活动或努力( spurt的名词复数 ); 突然奋起 | |
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14 spurt | |
v.喷出;突然进发;突然兴隆 | |
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15 dodge | |
v.闪开,躲开,避开;n.妙计,诡计 | |
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16 swerved | |
v.(使)改变方向,改变目的( swerve的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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17 fray | |
v.争吵;打斗;磨损,磨破;n.吵架;打斗 | |
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18 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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19 harpoon | |
n.鱼叉;vt.用鱼叉叉,用鱼叉捕获 | |
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20 plunged | |
v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
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21 snarling | |
v.(指狗)吠,嗥叫, (人)咆哮( snarl的现在分词 );咆哮着说,厉声地说 | |
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22 streak | |
n.条理,斑纹,倾向,少许,痕迹;v.加条纹,变成条纹,奔驰,快速移动 | |
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23 rammed | |
v.夯实(土等)( ram的过去式和过去分词 );猛撞;猛压;反复灌输 | |
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24 mighty | |
adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
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25 glistening | |
adj.闪耀的,反光的v.湿物闪耀,闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
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26 fangs | |
n.(尤指狗和狼的)长而尖的牙( fang的名词复数 );(蛇的)毒牙;罐座 | |
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27 muzzle | |
n.鼻口部;口套;枪(炮)口;vt.使缄默 | |
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28 retrieved | |
v.取回( retrieve的过去式和过去分词 );恢复;寻回;检索(储存的信息) | |
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29 considerably | |
adv.极大地;相当大地;在很大程度上 | |
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30 pelts | |
n. 皮毛,投掷, 疾行 vt. 剥去皮毛,(连续)投掷 vi. 猛击,大步走 | |
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31 lone | |
adj.孤寂的,单独的;唯一的 | |
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32 squint | |
v. 使变斜视眼, 斜视, 眯眼看, 偏移, 窥视; n. 斜视, 斜孔小窗; adj. 斜视的, 斜的 | |
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33 vessel | |
n.船舶;容器,器皿;管,导管,血管 | |
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34 bulwarks | |
n.堡垒( bulwark的名词复数 );保障;支柱;舷墙 | |
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35 investigation | |
n.调查,调查研究 | |
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36 placid | |
adj.安静的,平和的 | |
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37 ferocious | |
adj.凶猛的,残暴的,极度的,十分强烈的 | |
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38 savagely | |
adv. 野蛮地,残酷地 | |
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39 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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40 overhaul | |
v./n.大修,仔细检查 | |
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41 spine | |
n.脊柱,脊椎;(动植物的)刺;书脊 | |
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42 afterward | |
adv.后来;以后 | |
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43 tempting | |
a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
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44 streaking | |
n.裸奔(指在公共场所裸体飞跑)v.快速移动( streak的现在分词 );使布满条纹 | |
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45 breached | |
攻破( breach的现在分词 ); 破坏,违反 | |
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46 breach | |
n.违反,不履行;破裂;vt.冲破,攻破 | |
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47 breaches | |
破坏( breach的名词复数 ); 破裂; 缺口; 违背 | |
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48 flopped | |
v.(指书、戏剧等)彻底失败( flop的过去式和过去分词 );(因疲惫而)猛然坐下;(笨拙地、不由自主地或松弛地)移动或落下;砸锅 | |
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49 killer | |
n.杀人者,杀人犯,杀手,屠杀者 | |
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50 killers | |
凶手( killer的名词复数 ); 消灭…者; 致命物; 极难的事 | |
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51 lesser | |
adj.次要的,较小的;adv.较小地,较少地 | |
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52 jaw | |
n.颚,颌,说教,流言蜚语;v.喋喋不休,教训 | |
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53 labored | |
adj.吃力的,谨慎的v.努力争取(for)( labor的过去式和过去分词 );苦干;详细分析;(指引擎)缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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54 rapacious | |
adj.贪婪的,强夺的 | |
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55 jaws | |
n.口部;嘴 | |
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56 fins | |
[医]散热片;鱼鳍;飞边;鸭掌 | |
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57 exhausted | |
adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的 | |
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58 titanic | |
adj.巨人的,庞大的,强大的 | |
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59 quarry | |
n.采石场;v.采石;费力地找 | |
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60 relentless | |
adj.残酷的,不留情的,无怜悯心的 | |
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61 prey | |
n.被掠食者,牺牲者,掠食;v.捕食,掠夺,折磨 | |
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