It was eight o'clock in the morning. We had four hours to ourselves before the sun could be productively observed.

时间是早晨八点。太阳可以供我们观察利用的时间只剩下四小时了。

I guided our steps toward a huge bay that made a crescent-shaped incision in the granite cliffs along the beach.

我向一处宽大的港湾一步步走去，湾作斩月形，在花岗石的悬崖中间。

There, all about us, I swear that the shores and ice floes were crowded with marine mammals as far as the eye could see, and I involuntarily looked around for old Proteus, that mythological shepherd who guarded King Neptune's immense flocks.

在那里，我简直可以说，我们周围，陆地上和冰层上，一望无际都是被海中哺乳动物挤满了，我眼光不期然而然地找那老头蒲罗德，他是神话中给海神涅豆尼看守家畜群的老收人。

To be specific, these were seals.

海豹特别多。

They formed distinct male-and-female groups, the father watching over his family, the mother suckling her little ones, the stronger youngsters emancipated a few paces away.

它们形成个别分开的队伍，雄的和雌的一起，父海豹关心它的家族，母海豹给它的小海豹喂奶，有些已经壮大的年轻海豹随意走开；在远一些的地方。

When these mammals wanted to relocate, they moved in little jumps made by contracting their bodies, clumsily helped by their imperfectly developed flippers, which, as with their manatee relatives, form actual forearms.

当这些哺乳动物要走动的时候，它们由于躯体的伸缩，一跳一跳地走，同时它们相当笨，拿它们的不发达的鳍来帮助走动，但这鳍在它们的同类海牛身上，就成为真正的前臂了。