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Cthulhu still lives, too, I suppose, again in that chasm of stone which has shielded him since the sun was young. His accursed city is sunken once more, for the Vigilant sailed over the spot after the April storm; but his ministers on earth still bellow and prance and slay around idol-capped monoliths in lonely places. Who knows the end? What has risen may sink, and what has sunk may rise. It waits and dreams in the deep, and decay spreads over the tottering cities of men. A time will come – but I must not and ca
At the Mountains of Madness
I
I don’t want to tell my reasons for opposing the invasion of the Antarctic – with its vast fossil hunt and its melting of the ancient ice caps. I can understand clearly that my story will seem extravagant and incredible. But there are photographs, both ordinary and aerial, and they will count in my favor,[103] for they are vivid and graphic. Of course, some people can say that is all fakery. And there are ink drawings which can be jeered at as obvious impostures.
I must rely on the judgment and standing of the few scientific leaders who have, on the one hand, sufficient independence of thought; and on the other hand, sufficient influence to deter the exploring world in general from any over-ambitious program in the region of those mountains of madness. It is pity that ordinary men like myself and my colleagues, co
In the strictest sense, we are not specialists in the fields concerned. Miskatonic University[104] sent me as a geologist. The aim of our expedition was to secure deep-level specimens of rock and soil from various parts of the Antarctic continent. We had a remarkable drill devised by Professor Frank H. Pabodie[105] of our engineering department. I had no wish to be a pioneer in any other field than this, but I hoped that the use of this new mechanical device would discover materials, unacceptable by the ordinary methods of collection.
Pabodie’s drilling apparatus was unique and radical in its lightness, portability, and capacity. Three sledges could carry steel head, jointed rods,[106] gasoline motor, collapsible wooden derrick,[107] dynamiting paraphernalia,[108] cords, rubbish-removal auger, and sectional piping for bores five inches wide and up to one thousand feet deep. This was possible due to aluminum alloy. Four large aeroplanes could transport our entire expedition from a base at the edge of the great ice barrier to various inland points.
We pla
The public knows of the Miskatonic Expedition through our frequent reports to the Arkham Advertiser and Associated Press,[112] and through the later articles of Pabodie and myself. There were four men from the University – Pabodie, Lake[113] of the biology department, Atwood[114] of the physics department – also a meteorologist – and myself, representing geology – besides sixteen assistants: seven graduate students from Miskatonic and nine skilled mechanics. Of these sixteen, twelve were qualified aeroplane pilots, they were competent wireless operators as well. Eight of them understood navigation with compass and sextant, as did Pabodie, Atwood, and I. In addition, of course, our two ships were fully ma
The Nathaniel Derby Pickman Foundation[116] financed the expedition. The dogs, sledges, machines, camp materials, and unassembled parts of our five planes were delivered in Boston, and there our ships were loaded. We were marvelously well-equipped for our specific purposes. As the newspapers told, we sailed from Boston Harbor on September 2nd, 1930, taking a leisurely course down the coast and through the Panama Canal,[117] and stopping at Samoa and Hobart, Tasmania,[118] where we got final supplies. Our ship captains were J. B. Douglas,[119] commanding the brig Arkham, and Georg Thorfi
At about 62° South Latitude we noticed our first icebergs – table-like objects with vertical sides – and just before reaching the Antarctic circle,[121] which we crossed on October 20th with appropriately ceremonies, we were considerably troubled with field ice. The falling temperature bothered me considerably after our long voyage through the tropics. Very often the curious atmospheric effects enchanted me vastly; distant bergs became the battlements of unimaginable cosmic castles.
Pushing through the ice, we regained open water at South Latitude 67°, East Longitude 175°. On the morning of October 26th a snow-clad mountain chain appeared on the south. That was an outpost of the great unknown continent and its cryptic world of frozen death. These peaks were obviously the Admiralty Range discovered by Ross,[122] and our task was to round Cape Adare[123] and sail down the east coast of Victoria Land[124] to our base on the shore of McMurdo Sound,[125] at the foot of the volcano Erebus[126] in South Latitude 77° 9’.
The last part of the voyage was vivid and fancy-stirring. Great barren peaks of mystery, white snow, bluish ice and water lanes, and black bits of exposed granite slope. Something about the scene reminded me of the strange and disturbing Asian paintings of Nicholas Roerich,[127] and of the disturbing descriptions of the evil plateau of Leng[128] which appear in the dreaded Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred. I was rather sorry, later on, that I had looked into that monstrous book at the college library.
103
in my favor – в мою пользу
104
Miskatonic University – Мискатоникский университет (вымышленный университет, расположенный в вымышленном городе Аркхем, штат Массачусетс, США).
105
Frank H. Pabodie – Фрэнк Х. Пэбоди
106
jointed rods – складной хвостовик бура
107
collapsible wooden derrick – разборная деревянная буровая вышка
108
dynamiting paraphernalia – принадлежности для взрывных работ
109
Ross Sea – море Росса (море в Тихом океане у берегов Земель Виктории и Мэри Бэрд, Западная Антарктида)
110
Shackleton, Amundsen, Scott, and Byrd – Шеклтон, Амундсен, Скотт и Бэрд
111
pre-Cambrian – докембрийский период (криптозой, предшествовал началу кембрийского периода (около 540 млн. лет назад)
112
Arkham Advertiser and Associated Press – «Аркхемский листок» и «Ассошиэйтид Пресс»
113
Lake – Лэйк
114
Atwood – Этвуд
115
were fully ma
116
Nathaniel Derby Pickman Foundation – Фонд Натаниэла Дерби Пикмена
117
Panama Canal – Панамский канал
118
Samoa and Hobart, Tasmania – Самоа и Хобарт, Тасмания
119
J. B. Douglas – Дж. Б. Дуглас
120
Georg Thorfi
121
Antarctic circle – Южный полярный круг
122
Admiralty Range discovered by Ross – Адмиралтейские горы, открытые Россом
123
Cape Adare – мыс Адэр (мыс и полуостров, расположенные на крайнем северо-востоке региона Земля Виктории, Восточная Антарктида)
124
Victoria Land – Земля Виктории (район Антарктиды)
125
the shore of McMurdo Sound – побережье пролива Мак-Мердо (Мак-Мердо – пролив в Антарктиде, покрытые льдом воды которого простираются приблизительно на 55 км в длину и ширину. На севере пролив выходит в Море Росса).
126
Erebus – Эребус
127
Nicholas Roerich – Николай Рерих (1874–1947), русский художник, сценограф, философ-мистик, писатель, путешественник, археолог, общественный деятель.
128
plateau of Leng – плоскогорье Ленг (упоминаемое Лавкрафтом холодное и пустынное плато)