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At the crotch or junction, these flukes slightly overlap, then sideways recede from each other like wings, leaving a wide vacancy between.
在那桠杈或者分支的地方，这两片裂尾稍微有点叠起，接着又斜斜的、象两张翅膀彼此分开来，中间隔开得很阔。
In no living thing are the lines of beauty more exquisitely defined than in the crescentic borders of these flukes.
在一般生物中，决没有比这种仿如蛾眉月的裂片更具雅致鲜明的曲线美。
At its utmost expansion in the full grown whale, the tail will considerably exceed twenty feet across.
一只茁壮的鲸，在它尾巴充分扩张的时候，横里总在二十英尺以上。
The entire member seems a dense webbed bed of welded sinews;
整个尾巴的构造似乎是密结着肌肉的网络状的矿层，
but cut into it, and you find that three distinct strata compose it:—upper, middle, and lower.
不过一把它剖开来，就发现里边有性质不同的三层——上层，中层，下层。
The fibres in the upper and lower layers, are long and horizontal;
上层和下层的筋筋，又长又直；
those of the middle one, very short, and running crosswise between the outside layers.
中层的筋筋很短，同上下两层密相交叉。
This triune structure, as much as anything else, imparts power to the tail.
这种三位一体的结构，跟其它的组织一样，赋予尾巴以威力。
To the student of old Roman walls, the middle layer will furnish a curious parallel to the thin course of tiles
在研究古罗马城墙的学者看来，中层是奇特得跟古代的奇珍遗物中那层薄薄的花砖一样，
always alternating with the stone in those wonderful relics of the antique,
它往往跟石碑交错在一起，
and which undoubtedly contribute so much to the great strength of the masonry.
而无疑地又给石造建筑物增加了很大的助力。
But as if this vast local power in the tendinous tail were not enough,
不过，好象这根腱质尾巴的这种原有的巨力还不够大似的，
the whole bulk of the leviathan is knit over with a warp and woof of muscular fibres and filaments,
这种大海兽的整个躯干还横横直直地布满许多肌肉的筋筋和纤维，
which passing on either side the loins and running down into the flukes, insensibly blend with them, and largely contribute to their might;
这些东西穿过两边腰侧，直通裂片，不知不觉地跟裂片混凝在一起，大大加强了裂片的力量；
so that in the tail the confluent measureless force of the whole whale seems concentrated to a point.
因此，整个鲸身所汇合着的无比的力量，似乎就都集结在这根尾巴上。
