The classification of the constituents of a chaos, nothing less is here essayed.
这其中包括着各式各类的人，从有权有势的人到一般的小人物，
Listen to what the best and latest authorities have laid down.
从捕鲸界的老手到只出过几次海的新手，从陆地上的人到真正出海的人……
No branch of Zoology is so much involved as that which is entitled Cetology, says Captain Scoresby, A.D. 1820.
涉及这个学科的人不计其数，仅是成名成家并且发表了自己著述的人名就可以罗列出一大串来。
It is not my intention, were it in my power, to enter into the inquiry as to the true method of dividing the cetacea into groups and families....
之所以会产生这样的情况，实在是因为在所有动物学的分支中，鲸类学可以称做是最复杂，牵扯最广，涉及面最大的一个学科。
Utter confusion exists among the historians of this animal, says Surgeon Beale, A.D. 1839.
可是这近三十位大家中，真正见到过活鲸的人物，
Unfitness to pursue our research in the unfathomable waters.
却只有五六分之一，其余的则是在陆地上靠解剖或其他方法得来的结论。
Impenetrable veil covering our knowledge of the cetacea. A field strewn with thorns. All these incomplete indications but serve to torture us naturalists.
不过他的发言权也仅仅局限于格陵兰鲸和露脊鲸，关于抹香鲸他就没有什么了解了。
