The Call of Cthulhu / Зов Ктулху. Говард Филлипс Лавкрафт

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to check the risk of the whole expedition’s success.

      Then, in about an hour and a half more, came that excited message from Lake’s plane, which almost reversed my sentiments:

      “10:05 p. m. On the wing. After snowstorm, appeared mountain range ahead higher than any hitherto seen. May equal Himalayas [137]. Probable Latitude 76° 15’, Longitude 113° 10’ E. Two smoking cones. All peaks black and bare of snow. Strong wind impedes navigation.”

      After that Pabodie, the men and I stood by the receiver. Thought of these titanic mountains seven hundred miles away inflamed our deepest sense of adventure. In half an hour Lake called us again:

      “The plane forced down on plateau in foothills, but nobody hurt and perhaps can repair. We will transfer things to other three planes. You can’t imagine anything like this. Highest peaks must go over thirty-five thousand feet. Atwood will work with theodolite [138] while Carroll and I will go up. Possibly pre-Cambrian slate [139] with other strata mixed in. Queer skyline effects – regular sections of cubes clinging to highest peaks. Like land of mystery in a dream or gateway to forbidden world. Wish you were here [140] to study.”

      Though it was sleeping-time, not one of us went to bed. We were sorry, of course, about the damaged aeroplane, but hoped it could be easily fixed. Then, at 11 p. m., came another call from Lake:

      “Up with Carroll over highest foothills. Frightful to climb, and hard to go at this altitude, but it’s worth it. Main summits exceed Himalayas, and very queer. Range looks like pre-Cambrian slate, with plain signs of many other strata. Odd formations on slopes of highest mountains. Great low square blocks with exactly vertical sides, and rectangular lines of low, vertical ramparts, like the old Asian castles. Impressive from distance. Carroll thought they were formed of smaller separate pieces, but that is probably an illusion.

      Parts, especially upper parts, seem lighter than any visible strata on slopes. Close flying shows many cave-mouths, some unusually regular in outline, square or semicircular. You must come and investigate. I saw rampart squarely on top of one peak. Height seems about thirty thousand to thirty-five thousand feet. I am up twenty-one thousand, five hundred myself, in devilish, gnawing cold. Wind whistles and pipes, but no flying danger.”

      I replied that I would join Lake as soon as he could send a plane. It was possible that the eastward flight might not be made, after all, this season.

      Lake called me later to say that he had decided to let the camp stay where Moulton’s plane had landed. The ice sheet was very thin, with dark ground here and there visible. Lake spoke of the majesty of the whole scene, and the queer state of his sensations. The height of the five tallest peaks was from thirty thousand to thirty-four thousand feet. The camp lay a little more than five miles from the higher foothills. I could trace a note of subconscious alarm in his words. He was ready to rest now, after a continuous day’s work.

      In the morning it was agreed that one of Lake’s planes would come to my base for Pabodie, the five men, and myself, as well as for all the fuel it could carry. Pabodie and I prepared to close our base for a short or long period, as the case might be. Some of our conical tents were reinforced by blocks of hard snow, and now we decided to complete the job of making a permanent village. I sent a message that Pabodie and I would be ready for the northwestward journey after one day’s work and one night’s rest.

      Lake began to send me the most extraordinary and excited messages. He had resolved to do some local boring as part of the expedition’s general program. In three hours young Gedney [141] – the acting foreman [142] – rushed into the camp with the shocking news.

      They had struck a cave. The layer was not more than seven or eight feet deep but extended off in all directions. Its roof and floor were equipped with large stalactites and stalagmites [143]; but the most important things were shells and bones. This medley contained representatives of more Cretaceous [144], Eocene [145], and other animal species than the greatest paleontologist could count or classify in a year. Mollusks, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and early mammals – great and small, known and unknown. No wonder Gedney ran back to the camp, and no wonder everyone else dropped work and rushed headlong to a new-found gateway to secrets of inner earth and vanished ages.

      Lake wrote a message in his notebook and sent young Moulton to run back to the camp to tell it by wireless. This was my first word of the discovery, and it told of the identification of early shells, bones, remnants of labyrinthodonts and thecodonts [146], great skull fragments, dinosaur vertebrae and armor plates, pterodactyl teeth and wing bones, Archaeopteryx debris [147], Miocene [148] sharks’ teeth, primitive bird skulls, and other bones of archaic mammals. Lake concluded that the last deposits had occurred during the Oligocene Age [149], so they are at least thirty million years old.

      The inevitable conclusion was that in this part of the world there had been a remarkable and unique degree of continuity between the life of over three hundred million years ago and that of only thirty million years ago. Lake continued to send us frequent messages. Those who followed the newspapers will remember the excitement created among scientists by that afternoon’s reports. I will give the messages literally as Lake sent them:

      “Fowler [150] discovers important fragments in sandstone and limestone. Several distinct triangular striated prints like those in Archaean slate. That is, their source survived from over six hundred million years ago to Comanchian times [151] without morphological changes. Comanchian prints apparently more primitive or decadent than older ones. It will mean to biology what Einstein has meant to mathematics and physics. It joins up with my previous work and conclusions.

      As I suspected, the earth has seen whole cycle or cycles of organic life before known one that begins with Archaeozoic cells [152]. A thousand million years ago the planet was inhabitable. The question arises when, where, and how evolution took place.”

* * *

      “Later. Examining certain skeletal fragments of large land and marine creatures and primitive mammals, I found local wounds or injuries to bony structure. One or two cases of clean bones. Not many specimens affected. I am sending to the camp for electric torches. I want to extend search area underground.”

* * *

      “Still later. I have found a peculiar soapstone fragment about six inches across and an inch and a half thick, greenish. It is impossible to place its period. It has curious smoothness and regularity and is shaped like five-pointed star with tips broken off, with signs of other cleavage at inward angles and in center of surface. Probably water action. Dogs were barking continuously while we were working, and they hate this soapstone. I must check if it has any peculiar odor. I will report again when Mills gets back with light and we start on underground area.”

* * *

      “10:15 p. m. Important discovery. Orrendorf and Watkins

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