The Mountains Of Madness
Part 2

From then on for another half hour Lake continued to turn on the comments, and expressed his intention to climb some of the peaks on foot. I replied that I would join him as soon as he could send the plane, and that Pabodie and I will devise the best gasoline plan — just where and how to centralize our inventory given the changing character of the expedition. Obviously, Lake's tedious operation, as well as his aircraft activity, would require a lot of shipping for the new base he would establish at the foot of the mountains; and it's possible that flights to the east might not be done after all these seasons. In connection with this business, I called Captain Douglas and asked him to get as much of the ship as possible and boarded the barrier with a team of dogs we left there. The direct route across the unknown territory between Lake and McMurdo Sound was what we had to build.

Lake then called me to say that he had decided to let the camp stay where Moulton's plane had been forced down, and where repairs had been somewhat developing. The ice sheet was extremely thin, with dark ground here and there visible, and he would sink some anchors and explosions at that point before going on a sled trip or climbing expedition. He spoke of the indescribable majesty of the entire scene, and the strange feeling of his feeling of being on the vast silent peak headland whose ranks were raised like a wall reaching the sky on the edge of the world. Observations of theodolite Atwood have placed the height of the five highest peaks between 30,000 and 34,000 feet. The windy nature of the land clearly disturbs the Lake, as it argues for the occasional presence of violent gales exceeding anything we have so far encountered. His tent was located a little over five miles from where the higher foothills suddenly rose. I could almost trace the tone of the subconscious alarm in his words — flashed across the glacial expanse of 700 miles — as he urged for all of us to hurry with this matter and create a strange new territory disposed of as soon as possible. He would rest now, after a day of work with almost unparalleled speed, strength, and results.

In the morning I had a three-corner wireless conversation with Lake and Capt. Douglas was at their separate base; and it was agreed that one of Lake's planes would come to my base for Pabodie, five men, and myself, as well as for all the fuel he could carry.  The rest of the fuel question, depending on our decision about the trip east, could wait a few days; because Lake had enough to direct heat the camp and drill. Eventually the old southern base had to be refilled; but if we delayed the trip east we would not use it until next summer, and in the meantime Lake must send a plane to explore the direct route between his new mountains and McMurdo Sound.

Pabodie and I are getting ready to close our headquarters for short or long periods of time, as the case may be. If we were wintering in Antarctica, we would probably be flying straight from Lake base to Arkham without returning to this place. Some of our cone tents have been reinforced by hard snow beams, and now we decided to finish the job of making Esquimau village permanent. Due to a very liberal supply of tents, Lake had everything its base needed even after our arrival. I'm wireless that Pabodie and I will be ready to move northwest after a day's work and a night's rest.

However, our workers were not so stable after 4 P.M; around that time Lake began to send out the most incredible and vibrant messages. His workday had begun for no reason; since the plane's survey of the nearly exposed rock face revealed an entire layer of ancient Archaean and primordial remains that he had not sought, and that forms a colossal crest so large that it rises from a tantalizing distance from the camp. Most of the stones were Jurassic and Comanchian sandstones and Permian and Triassic schists, with occasional glossy black protrusions showing hard, slippery coal. This rather discouraged lake, whose plans all hinge on excavating specimens that are more than 500 million years older. It was clear to him that in order to recover the Archaean crescent vein where he found the strange markings, he had to make a long journey by sled from the foot of the hill to the steep slopes of the giant mountain range itself.

They've hit the cave. At its dull beginnings, the sandstone has provided a place for Comanchian limestone veins filled with fossilized cephalopods, corals, echini, and spirifera, among others, and with the occasional suggestion of hoofed sponges and sea vertebrate bones — the latter are likely teliost, shark, and ganoid. This in itself is quite important, as it gives the first vertebrate fossils that have not yet secured the expedition; but when before long the drill head was dropped through the layers into a real vacuum, an entirely new and very strong wave of excitement is spreading among the excavators. The massive explosion had exposed the secrets of the subterrene; and now, through a jagged pit that was about five feet tall and three feet thick, there evaporated in front of the avid seeker, who was, a part of a shallow limestone basin that was used over fifty million years ago by groundwater dripping from the tropical world of the past.

The perforated layer was no more than seven or eight feet tall, but it extended indefinitely in all directions and had a fresh, slightly moving air that suggested its membership in a vast underground system. The roof and floor are equipped with many large stalactites and stalagmites, some of which meet in the form of columns; but most important above all is the large deposits of shells and bones that in some places almost keep the passageway choked. Washed from forests of unknown Mesozoic ferns and fungi, and forests of Tertiary cycads, fan palms, and primitive angiosperms, this osseous medley contains more representatives of the Cretaceous, Eocene, and Eocene, and other animal species that the greatest palaeontologists could count or count. Classified in one year. Mollusks, the armor of crustaceans, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and ancient mammals — large and small, known and unknown.  No wonder Gedney ran back to camp shouting, and no wonder everyone stopped working and rushed through the biting cold to where the tall crane marked the newly discovered gateway to the inner earth secrets and disappeared for centuries.

The Elder