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- Говард Лавкрафт
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- Стр. 1/38
Ridges of Madness
I
am
forced
into
speech
because
men
of
science
have
refused
to
follow
my
advice
without
knowing
why
.
It
is
altogether
against
my
will
that
I
tell
my
reasons
for
opposing
this
contemplated
invasion
of
the
antarctic
-
with
its
vast
fossil
hunt
and
its
wholesale
boring
and
melting
of
the
ancient
ice
caps
.
And
I
am
the
more
reluctant
because
my
warning
may
be
in
vain
.
Doubt
of
the
real
facts
,
as
I
must
reveal
them
,
is
inevitable
;
yet
,
if
I
suppressed
what
will
seem
extravagant
and
incredible
,
there
would
be
nothing
left
.
The
hitherto
withheld
photographs
,
both
ordinary
and
aerial
,
will
count
in
my
favor
,
for
they
are
damnably
vivid
and
graphic
.
Still
,
they
will
be
doubted
because
of
the
great
lengths
to
which
clever
fakery
can
be
carried
.
The
ink
drawings
,
of
course
,
will
be
jeered
at
as
obvious
impostures
,
notwithstanding
a
strangeness
of
technique
which
art
experts
ought
to
remark
and
puzzle
over
.
In
the
end
I
must
rely
on
the
judgment
and
standing
of
the
few
scientific
leaders
who
have
,
on
the
one
hand
,
sufficient
independence
of
thought
to
weigh
my
data
on
its
own
hideously
convincing
merits
or
in
the
light
of
certain
primordial
and
highly
baffling
myth
cycles
;
and
on
the
other
hand
,
sufficient
influence
to
deter
the
exploring
world
in
general
from
any
rash
and
over-ambitious
program
in
the
region
of
those
mountains
of
madness
.
It
is
an
unfortunate
fact
that
relatively
obscure
men
like
myself
and
my
associates
,
connected
only
with
a
small
university
,
have
little
chance
of
making
an
impression
where
matters
of
a
wildly
bizarre
or
highly
controversial
nature
are
concerned
.
It
is
further
against
us
that
we
are
not
,
in
the
strictest
sense
,
specialists
in
the
fields
which
came
primarily
to
be
concerned
.
As
a
ge
ologist
,
my
object
in
leading
the
Miskatonic
University
Expedition
was
wholly
that
of
securing
deep-level
specimens
of
rock
and
soil
from
various
parts
of
the
antarctic
continent
,
aided
by
the
remarkable
drill
devised
by
Professor
Frank
H.
Pabodie
of
our
engineering
department
.
I
had
no
wish
to
be
a
pioneer
in
any
other
field
than
this
,
but
I
did
hope
that
the
use
of
this
new
mechanical
appliance
at
different
points
along
previously
explored
paths
would
bring
to
light
materials
of
a
sort
hitherto
unreached
by
the
ordinary
methods
of
collection
.
Pabodie
's
drilling
apparatus
,
as
the
public
already
knows
from
our
reports
,
was
unique
and
radical
in
its
lightness
,
portability
,
and
capacity
to
combine
the
ordinary
artesian
drill
principle
with
the
principle
of
the
small
circular
rock
drill
in
such
a
way
as
to
cope
quickly
with
strata
of
varying
hardness
.
Steel
head
,
jointed
rods
,
gasoline
motor
,
collapsible
wooden
derrick
,
dynamiting
paraphernalia
,
cording
,
rubbish-removal
auger
,
and
sectional
piping
for
bores
five
inches
wide
and
up
to
one
thousand
feet
deep
all
formed
,
with
needed
accessories
,
no
greater
load
than
three
seven-dog
sledges
could
carry
.
This
was
made
possible
by
the
clever
aluminum
alloy
of
which
most
of
the
metal
objects
were
fashioned
.
Four
large
Dornier
aeroplanes
,
designed
especially
for
the
tremendous
altitude
flying
necessary
on
the
antarctic
plateau
and
with
added
fuel-warming
and
quick-starting
devices
worked
out
by
Pabodie
,
could
transport
our
entire
expedition
from
a
base
at
the
edge
of
the
great
ice
barrier
to
various
suitable
inland
points
,
and
from
these
points
a
sufficient
quota
of
dogs
would
serve
us
.
We
planned
to
cover
as
great
an
area
as
one
antarctic
season
-
or
longer
,
if
absolutely
necessary
-
would
permit
,
operating
mostly
in
the
mountain
ranges
and
on
the
plateau
south
of
Ross
Sea
;
regions
explored
in
varying
degree
by
Shackleton
,
Amundsen
,
Scott
,
and
Byrd
.
With
frequent
changes
of
camp
,
made
by
aeroplane
and
involving
distances
great
enough
to
be
of
geological
significance
,
we
expected
to
unearth
a
quite
unprecedented
amount
of
material
-
especially
in
the
pre-Cambrian
strata
of
which
so
narrow
a
range
of
antarctic
specimens
had
previously
been
secured
.
We
wished
also
to
obtain
as
great
as
possible
a
variety
of
the
upper
fossiliferous
rocks
,
since
the
primal
life
history
of
this
bleak
realm
of
ice
and
death
is
of
the
highest
importance
to
our
knowledge
of
the
earth
's
past
.
That
the
antarctic
continent
was
once
temperate
and
even
tropical
,
with
a
teeming
vegetable
and
animal
life
of
which
the
lichens
,
marine
fauna
,
arachnida
,
and
penguins
of
the
northern
edge
are
the
only
survivals
,
is
a
matter
of
common
information
;
and
we
hoped
to
expand
that
information
in
variety
,
accuracy
,
and
detail
.
When
a
simple
boring
revealed
fossiliferous
signs
,
we
would
enlarge
the
aperture
by
blasting
,
in
order
to
get
specimens
of
suitable
size
and
condition
.
Our
borings
,
of
varying
depth
according
to
the
promise
held
out
by
the
upper
soil
or
rock
,
were
to
be
confined
to
exposed
,
or
nearly
exposed
,
land
surfaces
-
these
inevitably
being
slopes
and
ridges
because
of
the
mile
or
two-mile
thickness
of
solid
ice
overlying
the
lower
levels
.
We
could
not
afford
to
waste
drilling
the
depth
of
any
considerable
amount
of
mere
glaciation
,
though
Pabodie
had
worked
out
a
plan
for
sinking
copper
electrodes
in
thick
clusters
of
borings
and
melting
off
limited
areas
of
ice
with
current
from
a
gasoline-driven
dynamo
.
It
is
this
plan
-
which
we
could
not
put
into
effect
except
experimentally
on
an
expedition
such
as
ours
-
that
the
coming
Starkweather-Moore
Expedition
proposes
to
follow
,
despite
the
warnings
I
have
issued
since
our
return
from
the
antarctic
.
The
public
knows
of
the
Miskatonic
Expedition
through
our
frequent
wireless
reports
to
the
Arkham
Advertiser
and
Associated
Press
,
and
through
the
later
articles
of
Pabodie
and
myself
.
We
consisted
of
four
men
from
the
University
-
Pabodie
,
Lake
of
the
biology
department
,
Atwood
of
the
physics
department
-
also
a
meteorologist
-
and
myself
,
representing
geology
and
having
nominal
command
-
besides
sixteen
assistants
:
seven
graduate
students
from
Miskatonic
and
nine
skilled
mechanics
.
Of
these
sixteen
,
twelve
were
qualified
aeroplane
pilots
,
all
but
two
of
whom
were
competent
wireless
operators
.
Eight
of
them
understood
navigation
with
compass
and
sextant
,
as
did
Pabodie
,
Atwood
,
and
I
.
In
addition
,
of
course
,
our
two
ships
-
wooden
ex-whalers
,
reinforced
for
ice
conditions
and
having
auxiliary
steam
-
were
fully
manned
.
