"Bah! My friend, there'd be many more without their enemies, scorpionfish and human beings! Do you know how many eggs have been counted in a single female?"

“哎！我的朋友，如果它们没有天敌——伊豆鲉鱼和人类，那还会更多呢！你知道一只雌鳕鱼能产多少卵吗？”

"I'll go all out," Conseil replied. "500,000."

“我尽量说吧，”康塞尔回答说，“50万颗。”

"11,000,000, my friend."

“110万颗，我的朋友。”

"11,000,000! I refuse to accept that until I count them myself."

“110万颗。这我可不会相信，除非我自己数过。”

"So count them, Conseil. But it would be less work to believe me. Besides, Frenchmen, Englishmen, Americans, Danes, and Norwegians catch these cod by the thousands. They're eaten in prodigious quantities, and without the astonishing fertility of these fish, the seas would soon be depopulated of them. Accordingly, in England and America alone, 5,000 ships manned by 75,000 seamen go after cod. Each ship brings back an average catch of 4,400 fish, making 22,000,000. Off the coast of Norway, the total is the same."

“数吧，康塞尔。不过你很快就会相信我。再说，成千上万的法国人英国人、美洲人、丹麦人、挪威人，他们都在捕捉鳕鱼。人们消费鳕鱼的数量是惊人的，如果没有惊人的产出，海里的鳕鱼恐怕就要绝迹了。只是在英国和美洲，就有 5000艘由75000名水手驾驶的船只，被遣往捕捉鳕鱼。每只船平均约带回4万条，这总共就2500万条。而挪威一带的海域也是一样的情形。”

"Fine," Conseil replied, "I'll take master's word for it. I won't count them."

“好，”康塞尔回答，“我就相信先生的话，不数了。”

"Count what?"

“不数什么？”

"Those 11,000,000 eggs. But I'll make one comment."

“110万颗卵。但我要指出一点。”

"What's that?"

“哪一点？”

"If all their eggs hatched, just four codfish could feed England, America, and Norway."

“就是，如果所有的卵都能孵化，那四条雌鳕鱼就能满足英国、美洲和挪威的供给了。”