Popular imagination, I judge, responded actively to our wireless
bulletins of Lake's start northwestward into regions never trodden
by human foot or penetrated by human imagination, though we did not
mention his wild hopes of revolutionizing the entire sciences of
biology and geology.
His preliminary sledging and boring journey of January 11th to 18th
with Pabodie and five others--marred by the loss of two dogs in an
upset when crossing one of the great pressure ridges in the ice--had
brought up more and more of the Archæan slate; and even I was
interested by the singular profusion of evident fossil markings in that
unbelievably ancient stratum.
These markings, however, were of very primitive life forms involving
no great paradox except that any life forms should occur in rock as
definitely pre-Cambrian as this seemed to be; hence I still failed to
see the good sense of Lake's demand for an interlude in our time-saving
program--an interlude requiring the use of all four planes, many men,
and the whole of the expedition's mechanical apparatus.
I did not, in the end, veto the plan, though I decided not to accompany
the northwestward party despite Lake's plea for my geological advice.
While they were gone, I would remain at the base with Pabodie and five
men and work out final plans for the eastward shift. In preparation for
this transfer, one of the planes had begun to move up a good gasoline
supply from McMurdo Sound; but this could wait temporarily. I kept
with me one sledge and nine dogs, since it is unwise to be at any time
without possible transportation in an utterly tenantless world of
æon-long death.
Lake's subexpedition into the unknown, as every one will recall, sent
out its own reports from the short-wave transmitters on the planes;
these being simultaneously picked up by our apparatus at the southern
base and by the _Arkham_ at McMurdo Sound, whence they were relayed to
the outside world on wave lengths up to fifty meters.
The start was made January 22nd at 4 a.m.; and the first wireless
message we received came only two hours later, when Lake spoke of
descending and starting a small-scale ice-melting and bore at a point
some three hundred miles away from us. Six hours after that a second
and very excited message told of the frantic, beaverlike work whereby a
shallow shaft had been sunk and blasted, culminating in the discovery
of slate fragments with several markings approximately like the one
which had caused the original puzzlement.
Three hours later a brief bulletin announced the resumption of the
flight in the teeth of a raw and piercing gale; and when I dispatched
a message of protest against further hazards, Lake replied curtly that
his new specimens made any hazard worth taking.
I saw that his excitement had reached the point of mutiny, and that I
could do nothing to check this headlong risk of the whole expedition's
success; but it was appalling to think of his plunging deeper and
deeper into that treacherous and sinister white immensity of tempests
and unfathomed mysteries which stretched off for some fifteen hundred
miles to the half-known, half-suspected coast line of Queen Mary and
Knox Lands.
* * * * *
Then, in about an hour and a half more, came that doubly excited
message from Lake's moving plane, which almost reversed my sentiments
and made me wish I had accompanied the party:
"10:05 p.m. On the wing. After snowstorm, have spied mountain range
ahead higher than any hitherto seen. May equal Himalayas, allowing
for height of plateau. Probable Latitude 76° 15´, Longitude 113° 10´
E. Reaches far as can see to right and left. Suspicion of two
smoking cones. All peaks black and bare of snow. Gale blowing off
them impedes navigation."
After that Pabodie, the men, and I hung breathlessly over the receiver.
Thought of this titanic mountain rampart seven hundred miles away
inflamed our deepest sense of adventure; and we rejoiced that our
expedition, if not ourselves personally, had been its discoverers. In
half an hour Lake called us again:
"Moulton's plane forced down on plateau in foothills, but nobody
hurt and perhaps can repair. Shall transfer essentials to other
three for return or further moves if necessary, but no more heavy
plane travel needed just now. Mountains surpass anything in
imagination. Am going up scouting in Carroll's plane, with all
weight out.
"You can't imagine anything like this. Highest peaks must go over
thirty-five thousand feet. Everest out of the running, Atwood to
work out height with theodolite while Carroll and I go up. Probably
wrong about cones, for formations look stratified. Possibly
pre-Cambrian slate with other strata mixed in. Queer sky line
effects--regular sections of cubes clinging to highest peaks. Whole
thing marvelous in red-gold light of low sun. Like land of mystery
in a dream or gateway to forbidden world of untrodden wonder. Wish
you were here to study."
Though it was technically sleeping time, not one of us listeners
thought for a moment of retiring. It must have been a good deal
the same at McMurdo Sound, where the supply cache and the _Arkham_
were also getting the messages; for Captain Douglas gave out a call
congratulating everybody on the important find, and Sherman, the cache
operator, seconded his sentiments. We were sorry, of course, about the
damaged aëroplane, but hoped it could be easily mended. Then, at eleven
p.m., came another call from Lake:
"Up with Carroll over highest foothills. Don't dare try really tall
peaks in present weather, but shall later. Frightful work climbing,
and hard going at this altitude, but worth it. Great range fairly
solid, hence can't get any glimpses beyond. Main summits exceed
Himalayas, and very queer. Range looks like pre-Cambrian slate,
with plain signs of many other upheaved strata. Was wrong about
volcanism. Goes farther in either direction than we can see. Swept
clear of snow above about twenty-one thousand feet.
"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 clinging to steep
mountains in Roerich's paintings. Impressive from distance. Flew
close to some, and Carroll thought they were formed of smaller
separate pieces, but that is probably weathering. Most edges
crumbled and rounded off as if exposed to storms and climate
changes for millions of years.
"Parts, especially upper parts, seem to be of lighter-colored
rock than any visible strata on slopes proper, hence an evidently
crystalline origin. Close flying shows many cave mouths, some
unusually regular in outline, square or semicircular. You must come
and investigate. Think I saw rampart squarely on top of one peak.
Height seems about thirty thousand to thirty-five thousand feet. Am
up twenty-one thousand five hundred myself, in devilish, gnawing
cold. Wind whistles and pipes through passes and in and out of
caves, but no flying danger so far."
From then on for another half hour Lake kept up a running fire of
comment, and expressed his intention of climbing some of the peaks on
foot. I replied that I would join him as soon as he could send a plane,
and that Pabodie and I would work out the best gasoline plan--just
where and how to concentrate our supply in view of the expedition's
altered character.
Obviously, Lake's boring operations, as well as his aëroplane
activities, would need a great deal delivered at the new base which
he was to establish at the foot of the mountains; and it was possible
that the eastward flight might not be made, after all, this season. In
connection with this business I called Captain Douglas and asked him to
get as much as possible out of the ships and up the barrier with the
single dog team we had left there. A direct route across the unknown
region between Lake and McMurdo Sound was what we really ought to
establish.
Lake called me later to say that he had decided to let the camp stay
where Moulton's plane had been forced down, and where repairs had
already progressed somewhat. The ice sheet was very thin, with dark
ground here and there visible, and he would sink some borings and
blasts at that very point before making any sledge trips or climbing
expeditions.
He spoke of the ineffable majesty of the whole scene, and the queer
state of his sensations at being in the lee of vast, silent pinnacles,
whose ranks shot up like a wall reaching the sky at the world's rim.
[Illustration: _It was a queer state of sensations--being in the lee of
vast, silent pinnacles, where ranks shot up like a wall reaching the
sky at the world's rim._]
Atwood's theodolite observations had placed the height of the five
tallest peaks at from thirty thousand to thirty-four thousand feet.
The windswept nature of the terrain clearly disturbed Lake, for it
argued the occasional existence of prodigious gales, violent beyond
anything we had so far encountered. His camp lay a little more than
five miles from where the higher foothills rose abruptly.
I could almost trace a note of subconscious alarm in his words--flashed
across a glacial void of seven hundred miles--as he urged that we all
hasten with the matter and get the strange, new region disposed of as
soon as possible. He was about to rest now, after a continuous day's
work of almost unparalleled speed, strenuousness, and results.
* * * * *
In the morning I had a three-cornered wireless talk with Lake and
Captain Douglas at their widely separated bases. 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. The rest of the
fuel question, depending on our decision about an easterly trip, could
wait for a few days, since Lake had enough for immediate camp heat and
borings.
Eventually the old southern base ought to be restocked, but if we
postponed the easterly trip we would not use it till the next summer,
and, meanwhile, Lake must send a plane to explore a direct route
between his new mountains and McMurdo Sound.
Pabodie and I prepared to close our base for a short or long period, as
the case might be. If we wintered in the antarctic we would probably
fly straight from Lake's base to the _Arkham_ without returning to
this spot. Some of our conical tents had already been reinforced by
blocks of hard snow, and now we decided to complete the job of making a
permanent village. Owing to a very liberal tent supply, Lake had with
him all that his base would need, even after our arrival. I wirelessed
that Pabodie and I would be ready for the northwestward move after one
day's work and one night's rest.
Our labors, however, were not very steady after four p.m., for about
that time Lake began sending in the most extraordinary and excited
messages. His working day had started unpropitiously, since an
aëroplane survey of the nearly exposed rock surfaces showed an entire
absence of those Archæan and primordial strata for which he was
looking, and which formed so great a part of the colossal peaks that
loomed up at a tantalizing distance from the camp.
Most of the rocks glimpsed were apparently Jurassic and Comanchean
sandstones and Permian and Triassic schists, with now and then a glossy
black outcropping suggesting a hard and slaty coal.
This rather discouraged Lake, whose plans all hinged on unearthing
specimens more than five hundred million years older. It was clear
to him that in order to recover the Archæan slate vein in which he
had found the odd markings, he would have to make a long sledge trip
from these foothills to the steep slopes of the gigantic mountains
themselves.
He had resolved, nevertheless, to do some local boring as part of the
expedition's general program; hence, he set up the drill and put five
men to work with it while the rest finished settling the camp and
repairing the damaged aëroplane. The softest visible rock--a sandstone
about a quarter of a mile from the camp--had been chosen for the
first sampling; and the drill made excellent progress without much
supplementary blasting.
It was about three hours afterward, following the first really heavy
blast of the operation, that the shouting of the drill crew was heard;
and that young Gedney--the acting foreman--rushed into the camp with
the startling news.
* * * * *
They had struck a cave. Early in the boring the sandstone had given
place to a vein of Comanchean limestone, full of minute fossil
cephalopods, corals, echini, and spirifera, and with occasional
suggestions of siliceous sponges and marine vertebrate bones--the
latter probably of teliosts, sharks, and ganoids.
This, in itself, was important enough, as affording the first
vertebrate fossils the expedition had yet secured; but when shortly
afterward the drill head dropped through the stratum into apparent
vacancy, a wholly new and doubly intense wave of excitement spread
among the excavators.
A good-sized blast had laid open the subterrane secret; and now,
through a jagged aperture perhaps five feet across and three feet
thick, there yawned before the avid searchers a section of shallow
limestone hollowing worn more than fifty million years ago by the
trickling ground waters of a bygone tropic world.
The hollowed layer was not more than seven or eight feet deep, but
extended off indefinitely in all directions and had a fresh, slightly
moving air which suggested its membership in an extensive subterranean
system. Its roof and floor were abundantly equipped with large
stalactites and stalagmites, some of which met in columnar form.
But important above all else was the vast deposit of shells and bones,
which in places nearly choked the passage. Washed down from unknown
jungles of Mesozoic tree ferns and fungi, and forests of Tertiary
cycads, fan palms, and primitive angiosperms, this osseous medley
contained representatives of more Cretaceous, Eocene, and other
animal species than the greatest palæontologist could have counted or
classified in a year. Mollusks, crustacean armor, fishes, amphibians,
reptiles, birds, and early mammals--great and small, known and unknown.
No wonder Gedney ran back to the camp shouting, and no wonder every one
else dropped work and rushed headlong through the biting cold to where
the tall derrick marked a new-found gateway to secrets of inner earth
and vanished æons.
When Lake had satisfied the first keen edge of his curiosity he
scribbled a message in his notebook and had young Moulton run back to
the camp to dispatch it by wireless.
This was my first word of the discovery, and it told of the
identification of early shells, bones of ganoids and placoderms,
remnants of labyrinthodonta and thecoiidea, great mosasaur skull
fragments, dinosaur vertebræ and armor plates, pterodactyl teeth and
wing bones, Archaeopteryx débris, Miocene sharks' teeth, primitive
bird skulls, and other bones of archaic mammals such as Palæotheres,
Xiphodons, Eohippi, Oreodons, and Titanotheriidæ.
There was nothing as recent as a mastodon, elephant, true camel, deer,
or bovine animal; hence Lake concluded that the last deposits had
occurred during the Oligocene Age, and that the hollowed stratum had
lain in its present dried, dead, and inaccessible state for at least
thirty million years.
On the other hand, the prevalence of very early life forms was singular
in the highest degree. Though the limestone formation was, on the
evidence of such typical imbedded fossils as ventriculites, positively
and unmistakably Comanchean and not a particle earlier; the free
fragments in the hollow space included a surprising proportion from
organisms hitherto considered as peculiar to far older periods--even
rudimentary fishes, mollusks, and corals as remote as the Silurian or
Ordovician.
The inevitable inference 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. How far this continuity had extended beyond the Oligocene
Age when the cavern was closed was of course past all speculation.
In any event, the coming of the frightful ice in the Pleistocene some
five hundred thousand years ago--a mere yesterday as compared with the
age of this cavity--must have put an end to any of the primal forms
which had locally managed to outlive their common terms.
* * * * *
Lake was not content to let his first message stand, but had another
bulletin written and dispatched across the snow to the camp before
Moulton could get back. After that Moulton stayed at the wireless in
one of the planes, transmitting to me--and to the _Arkham_ for relaying
to the outside world--the frequent postscripts which Lake sent him by a
succession of messengers.
Those who followed the newspapers will remember the excitement created
among men of science by that afternoon's reports--reports which have
finally led, after all these years, to the organization of that very
Starkweather-Moore Expedition which I am so anxious to dissuade from
its purposes. I had better give the messages literally as Lake sent
them, and as our base operator McTighe translated them from his pencil
shorthand:
Fowler makes discovery of highest importance in sandstone and
limestone fragments from blasts. Several distinct triangular
striated prints like those in archæan slate, proving that source
survived from over six hundred million years ago to Comanchean
times without more than moderate morphological changes and decrease
in average size. Comanchean prints apparently more primitive or
decadent, if anything, than older ones. Emphasize importance of
discovery in press. Will mean to biology what Einstein has meant
to mathematics and physics. Joins up with my previous work and
amplifies conclusions.
Appears to indicate, as I suspected, that earth has seen whole cycle
or cycles of organic life before known one that begins with
Archæozoic cells. Was evolved and specialized not later than a
thousand million years ago, when planet was young and recently
uninhabitable for any life forms of normal protoplasmic structure.
Question arises when, where, and how development took place.
* * * * *
Later. Examining certain skeletal fragments of large land and marine
saurians and primitive mammals, find singular local wounds or
injuries to bony structure not attributable to any known predatory
or carnivorous animal of any period. Of two sorts--straight,
penetrant bores, and apparently hacking incisions. One or two
cases of cleanly severed bones. Not many specimens affected. Am
sending to camp for electric torches. Will extend search area
underground by hacking away stalactites.
* * * * *
Still later. Have found peculiar soapstone fragment about six inches
across and an inch and a half thick, wholly unlike any visible local
formation--greenish, but no evidences to place its period. Has
curious smoothness and regularity. Shaped like five-pointed star
with tips broken off, and signs of other cleavage at inward angles
and in center of surface. Small, smooth depression in center of
unbroken surface. Arouses much curiosity as to source and
weathering. Probably some freak of water action. Carroll, with
magnifier, thinks he can make out additional markings of geologic
significance. Groups of tiny dots in regular patterns. Dogs growing
uneasy as we work, and seem to hate this soapstone. Must see if it
has any peculiar odor. Will report again when Mills gets back with
light and we start on underground area.
* * * * *
10:15 p.m. Important discovery. Orrendorf and Watkins, working
underground at 9:45 with light, found monstrous barrel-shaped fossil
of wholly unknown nature; probably vegetable unless overgrown
specimen of unknown marine radiata. Tissue evidently preserved by
mineral salts. Tough as leather, but astonishing flexibility
retained in places. Marks of broken-off parts at ends and around
sides. Six feet end to end, three and five tenths feet central
diameter, tapering to one foot at each end. Like a barrel with five
bulging ridges in place of staves. Lateral breakages, as of
thinnish stalks, are at equator in middle of these ridges. In
furrows between ridges are curious growths--combs or wings that
fold up and spread out like fans. All greatly damaged but one,
which gives almost seven-foot wing spread. Arrangement reminds one
of certain monsters of primal myth, especially fabled Elder Things
in _Necronomicon_.
These wings seem to be membranous, stretched on framework of
glandular tubing. Apparent minute orifices in frame tubing at wing
tips. Ends of body shriveled, giving no clue to interior or to what
has been broken off there. Must dissect when we get back to camp.
Can't decide whether vegetable or animal. Many features obviously
of almost incredible primitiveness. Have set all hands cutting
stalactites and looking for further specimens. Additional scarred
bones found, but these must wait. Having trouble with dogs. They
can't endure the new specimen, and would probably tear it to pieces
if we didn't keep it at a distance from them.
* * * * *
11:30 p.m. Attention, Dyer, Pabodie, Douglas. Matter of highest--I
might say transcendent--importance. _Arkham_ must relay to Kingsport
Head Station at once. Strange barrel growth is the archæan thing
that left prints in rocks. Mills, Boudreau, and Fowler discover
cluster of thirteen more at underground point forty feet from
aperture. Mixed with curiously rounded and configured soapstone
fragments smaller than one previously found--star-shaped, but no
marks of breakage except at some of the points.
Of organic specimens, eight apparently perfect, with all appendages.
Have brought all to surface, leading off dogs to distance. They
cannot stand the things. Give close attention to description and
repeat back for accuracy. Papers must get this right.
Objects are eight feet long all over. Six-foot, five-ridged barrel
torso three and five tenths feet central diameter, one foot end
diameters. Dark gray, flexible, and infinitely tough. Seven-foot
membranous wings of same color, found folded, spread out of furrows
between ridges. Wing framework tubular or glandular, or lighter
gray, with orifices at wing tips. Spread wings have serrated edge.
Around equator, one at central apex of each of the five vertical,
stavelike ridges, are five systems of light-gray flexible arms or
tentacles found tightly folded to torso but expansible to maximum
length of over three feet. Like arms of primitive crinoid. Single
stalks three inches diameter branch after six inches into five
substalks, each of which branches after eight inches into five
small, tapering tentacles or tendrils, giving each stalk a total
of twenty-five tentacles.
At top of torso blunt, bulbous neck of lighter gray, with gill-like
suggestions, holds yellowish five-pointed starfish-shaped apparent
head covered with three-inch wiry cilia of various prismatic colors.
Head thick and puffy, about two feet point to point, with three-inch
flexible yellowish tubes projecting from each point. Slit in exact
center of top probably breathing aperture. At end of each tube is
spherical expansion where yellowish membrane rolls back on handling
to reveal glassy, red-irised globe, evidently an eye.
Five slightly longer reddish tubes start from inner angles of
starfish-shaped head and end in saclike swellings of same color
which, upon pressure, open to bell-shaped orifices two inches
maximum diameter and lined with sharp, white tooth-like
projections--probable mouths. All these tubes, cilia, and points
of starfish head, found folded tightly down; tubes and points
clinging to bulbous neck and torso. Flexibility surprising despite
vast toughness.
At bottom of torso, rough but dissimilarly functioning counterparts
of head arrangements exist. Bulbous light-gray pseudoneck, without
gill suggestions, holds greenish five-pointed starfish arrangement.
Tough, muscular arms four feet long and tapering from seven inches
diameter at base to about two and five tenths at point. To each
point is attached small end of a greenish five-veined membranous
triangle eight inches long and six wide at farther end. This is the
paddle, fin, or pseudofoot which had made prints in rocks from a
thousand million to fifty or sixty million years old.
From inner angles of starfish arrangement project two-foot reddish
tubes tapering from three inches diameter at base to one at tip.
Orifices at tips. All these parts infinitely tough and leathery,
but extremely flexible. Four-foot arms with paddles undoubtedly
used for locomotion of some sort, marine or otherwise. When moved,
display suggestions of exaggerated muscularity. As found, all
these projections tightly folded over pseudoneck and end of torso,
corresponding to projections at other end.
Cannot yet assign positively to animal or vegetable kingdom, but
odds now favor animal. Probably represents incredibly advanced
evolution of radiata without loss of certain primitive features.
Echinoderm resemblances unmistakable despite local contradictory
evidences.
Wing structure puzzles in view of probable marine habitat, but may
have use in water navigation. Symmetry is curiously vegetablelike,
suggesting vegetable's essential up-and-down structure rather than
animal's fore-and-aft structure. Fabulously early date of evolution,
preceding even simplest archæan Protozoa hitherto known, baffles all
conjecture as to origin.
Complete specimens have such uncanny resemblance to certain
creatures of primal myth that suggestion of ancient existence
outside antarctic becomes inevitable. Dyer and Pabodie have read
_Necronomicon_ and seen Clark Ashton Smith's nightmare paintings
based on text, and will understand when I speak of Elder Things
supposed to have created all earth life as jest or mistake. Students
have always thought conception formed from morbid imaginative
treatment of very ancient tropical radiata. Also like prehistoric
folklore things Wilmarth has spoken of--Cthulhu cult appendages,
etc.
Vast field of study opened. Deposits probably of late Cretaceous
or early Eocene period, judging from associated specimens. Massive
stalagmites deposited above them. Hard work hewing out, but
toughness prevented damage. State of preservation miraculous,
evidently owing to limestone action. No more found so far, but
will resume search later. Job now to get fourteen huge specimens
to camp without dogs, which bark furiously and can't be trusted
near them.
With nine men--three left to guard the dogs--we ought to manage the
three sledges fairly well, though wind is bad. Must establish plane
communication with McMurdo Sound and begin shipping material. But
I've got to dissect one of these things before we take any rest.
Wish I had a real laboratory here. Dyer better kick himself for
having tried to stop my westward trip. First the world's greatest
mountains, and then this. If this last isn't the high spot of the
expedition, I don't know what is. We're made scientifically.
Congrats, Pabodie, on the drill that opened up the cave. Now will
_Arkham_ please repeat description?
[Illustration: "_I've got to dissect one of these things before_----"
"_First the world's greatest mountains--then this!_"]
The sensations of Pabodie and myself at receipt of this report were
almost beyond description, nor were our companions much behind us in
enthusiasm. McTighe, who had hastily translated a few high spots as
they came from the droning receiving set, wrote out the entire message
from his shorthand version, as soon as Lake's operator signed off.
All appreciated the epoch-making significance of the discovery, and
I sent Lake congratulations as soon as the _Arkham's_ operator had
repeated back the descriptive parts as requested; and my example was
followed by Sherman from his station at the McMurdo Sound supply cache,
as well as by Captain Douglas of the _Arkham_.
Later, as head of the expedition, I added some remarks to be relayed
through the _Arkham_ to the outside world. Of course, rest was an
absurd thought amidst this excitement; and my only wish was to get to
Lake's camp as quickly as I could. It disappointed me when he sent word
that a rising mountain gale made early aërial travel impossible.
But within an hour and a half interest again rose to banish
disappointment. Lake, sending more messages, told of the completely
successful transportation of the fourteen great specimens to the camp.
It had been a hard pull, for the things were surprisingly heavy; but
nine men had accomplished it very neatly. Now some of the party were
hurriedly building a snow corral at a safe distance from the camp, to
which the dogs could be brought for greater convenience in feeding. The
specimens were laid out on the hard snow near the camp, save for one on
which Lake was making crude attempts at dissection.
This dissection seemed to be a greater task than had been expected,
for, despite the heat of a gasoline stove in the newly raised
laboratory tent, the deceptively flexible tissues of the chosen
specimen--a powerful and intact one--lost nothing of their more than
leathery toughness. Lake was puzzled as to how he might make the
requisite incisions without violence destructive enough to upset all
the structural niceties he was looking for.
He had, it is true, seven more perfect specimens; but these were too
few to use up recklessly unless the cave might later yield an unlimited
supply. Accordingly, he removed the specimen and dragged in one which,
though having remnants of the starfish arrangements at both ends, was
badly crushed and partly disrupted along one of the great torso furrows.
Results, quickly reported over the wireless, were baffling and
provocative indeed. Nothing like delicacy or accuracy was possible with
instruments hardly able to cut the anomalous tissue, but the little
that was achieved left us all awed and bewildered.
Existing biology would have to be wholly revised, for this thing was no
product of any cell growth science knows about. There had been scarcely
any mineral replacement, and despite an age of perhaps forty million
years the internal organs were wholly intact.
The leathery, undeteriorative, and almost indestructible quality was an
inherent attribute of the thing's form of organization, and pertained
to some paleocene cycle of invertebrate evolution utterly beyond our
powers of speculation.
At first all that Lake found was dry, but as the heated tent produced
its thawing effect, organic moisture of pungent and offensive odor
was encountered toward the thing's uninjured side. It was not blood,
but a thick, dark-green fluid apparently answering the same purpose.
By the time Lake reached this stage all thirty-seven dogs had been
brought to the still uncompleted corral near the camp, and even at that
distance set up a savage barking and show of restlessness at the acrid,
diffusive smell.
* * * * *
Far from helping to place the strange entity, this provisional
dissection merely deepened its mystery. All guesses about its external
members had been correct, and on the evidence of these one could hardly
hesitate to call the thing animal, but internal inspection brought up
so many vegetable evidences that Lake was left hopelessly at sea. It
had digestion and circulation, and eliminated waste matter through the
reddish tubes of its starfish-shaped base.
Cursorily, one would say that its respiratory apparatus handled oxygen
rather than carbon dioxide; and there were odd evidences of air-storage
chambers and methods of shifting respiration from the external orifice
to at least two other fully developed breathing systems--gills and
pores.
Clearly, it was amphibian and probably adapted to long airless
hibernation periods as well. Vocal organs seemed present in connection
with the main respiratory system, but they presented anomalies beyond
immediate solution. Articulate speech, in the sense of syllable
utterance, seemed barely conceivable, but musical piping notes covering
a wide range were highly probable. The muscular system was almost
pre-naturally developed.
The nervous system was so complex and highly developed as to leave Lake
aghast. Though excessively primitive and archaic in some respects, the
thing had a set of gangliar centers and connectives arguing the very
extremes of specialized development.
Its five-lobed brain was surprisingly advanced, and there were signs of
a sensory equipment, served in part through the wiry cilia of the head,
involving factors alien to any other terrestrial organism. Probably it
had more than five senses, so that its habits could not be predicted
from any existing analogy.
It must, Lake thought, have been a creature of keen sensitiveness and
delicately differentiated functions in its primal world--much like the
ants and bees of to-day. It reproduced like the vegetable cryptogams,
especially the pteridophyta; having spore cases at the tips of the
wings and evidently developing from a thallus or prothallus.
But to give it a name at this stage was mere folly. It looked like a
radiate, but was clearly something more. It was partly vegetable, but
had three fourths of the essentials of animal structure. That it was
marine in origin, its symmetrical contour and certain other attributes
clearly indicated; yet one could not be exact as to the limit of its
later adaptations.
The wings, after all, held a persistent suggestion of the aërial.
How it could have undergone its tremendously complex evolution on a
new-born earth in time to leave prints in archæan rocks was so far
beyond conception as to make Lake whimsically recall the primal myths
about Great Old Ones who filtered down from the stars and concocted
earth life as a joke or mistake; and the wild tales of cosmic hill
things from outside told by a folklorist colleague in Miskatonic's
English department.
* * * * *
Naturally, he considered the possibility of the pre-Cambrian prints
having been made by a less evolved ancestor of the present specimens,
but quickly rejected this too-facile theory upon considering the
advanced structural qualities of the older fossils. If anything, the
later contours showed decadence rather than higher evolution.
The size of the pseudofeet had decreased, and the whole morphology
seemed coarsened and simplified. Moreover, the nerves and organs,
just examined, held singular suggestions of retrogression from forms
still more complex. Atrophied and vestigial parts were surprisingly
prevalent. Altogether, little could be said to have been solved; and
Lake fell back on mythology for a provisional name--jocosely dubbing
his finds "The Elder Ones."
At about two-thirty a.m., having decided to postpone further work and
get a little rest, he covered the dissected organism with a tarpaulin,
emerged from the laboratory tent, and studied the intact specimens with
renewed interest.
The ceaseless antarctic sun had begun to limber up their tissues a
trifle, so that the head points and tubes of two or three showed
signs of unfolding; but Lake did not believe there was any danger of
immediate decomposition in the almost subzero air. He did, however,
move all the undissected specimens closer together and throw a spare
tent over them in order to keep off the direct solar rays. That
would also help to keep their possible scent away from the dogs,
whose hostile unrest was really becoming a problem, even at their
substantial distance and behind the higher and higher snow walls, which
an increased quota of the men were hastening to raise around their
quarters.
He had to weight down the corners of the tent cloth with heavy blocks
of snow to hold it in place amidst the rising gale, for the titan
mountains seemed about to deliver some gravely severe blasts. Early
apprehensions about sudden antarctic winds were revived, and under
Atwood's supervision precautions were taken to bank the tents, new dog
corral, and crude aëroplane shelters with snow, on the mountainward
side. These latter shelters, begun with hard snow blocks during odd
moments, were by no means as high as they should have been; and Lake
finally detached all hands from other tasks to work on them.
It was after four when Lake at last prepared to sign off and advised
us all to share the rest period his outfit would take when the shelter
walls were a little higher. He held some friendly chat with Pabodie
over the ether, and repeated his praise of the really marvelous drills
that had helped him make his discovery. Atwood also sent greetings and
praises.
I gave Lake a warm word of congratulation, owning up that he was right
about the western trip, and we all agreed to get in touch by wireless
at ten in the morning. If the gale was then over, Lake would send a
plane for the party at my base. Just before retiring I dispatched a
final message to the _Arkham_, with instructions about toning down the
day's news for the outside world, since the full details seemed radical
enough to rouse a wave of incredulity until further substantiated.