The Mountains Of Madness
Part 5's

But within an hour and a half interest rose again to dispel the disappointment. Lake sends more messages, and tells of the transportation of fourteen large specimens that actually made it to the camp. It was a hard pull, because the objects turned out to be very heavy; but nine people had achieved it very neatly. Now some parties are hastily building snow cages at a safe distance from the camp, where the dogs can be brought in for better feeding comfort. Specimens were placed in hard snow near the camp, except for the one on which Lake made a surgical effort.

This surgery seems to be a bigger task than expected; because regardless of the heat of the gasoline stove in the newly lifted laboratory tent, flexible network of selected specimens — strong and intact — loses nothing but their rough toughness. Lake was puzzled as to how he could make the necessary incisions without violence that was destructive enough to disrupt all the structural elements he was looking for. It was true, he had seven more perfect specimens; but these were too few to be used carelessly unless the cave could later produce an unlimited supply. Therefore, he removed the specimen and dragged it into the specimen which, despite having the remains of a starfish arrangement at both ends, had, it was badly destroyed and partially disturbed along one of the large body grooves.

The results, quickly reported over wireless, are confusing and indeed provocative. Nothing like delicacy or accuracy is possible with instruments that can barely cut through the anomalous tissue, but the little that is achieved leaves us all mesmerized and confused. Existing biology must be fully revised, as this is no product of the science of cell growth that knows. There is almost no replacement of the mineral, and although it may be forty million years old, its internal organs are fully intact. The coarse, non-regressing, and almost indestructible qualities are attributes inherent to the form of organization; and with regard to some evolutionary cycles the palaeogean invertebrates are completely beyond the power of our speculations. At first everything Lake found was dry, but because the heated tent produced its thawing effect, the organic moisture from the pungent and pungent odor was found on the side of the unharmed object. It was not blood, but a thick, blackish-green liquid seemed to answer the same goal.  By the time Lake reached this stage all 37 dogs had been taken to a still-unfinished cage near the camp; and even at that distance made a savage barking and showed unease at the smell, diffusive odor.

Instead of helping to put in place a strange entity, this temporary dissection only deepens its mystery. All the guesses about its external members were correct, and based on these evidences, one could not hesitate to call the thing an animal; but internal inspections brought so much evidence of vegetables that the Lake was left hopeless at sea. It has digestion and circulation, and removes waste through reddish tubes from its starfish-shaped bottom. Cursorily, one would say that his breathing apparatus handles oxygen rather than carbon dioxide; and there is strange evidence of air storage chambers and methods of transferring respiration from external holes to at least two other fully developed respiratory systems — gills and pores. Obviously, it is amphibious and may be adapted to long periods of hibernation without being stuffy as well. Vocal organs appear to be present in conjunction with the main respiratory system, but they present anomalies beyond immediate solutions. Articulate speech, in the syllable sense of words, seems hard to imagine; but musical pipe notes covering a wide range of possibilities. The muscular system is almost developed preternaturally.

The nervous system is so complicated and so developed that it makes the lake startled. Although in some ways too primitive and ancient, it had a series of centers and ganglial connections that debated the extremes of special development. His five-lobed brain was surprisingly advanced; and there were signs of sensory equipment, partly served through thin head cilia, involving factors that were foreign to other terrestrial organisms. It may have more than five senses, so its habit cannot be predicted from existing analogies. According to Lake, it must be a creature that has keen sensitivity and well-differentiated functions in its home world; just like the ants and bees of today.  These are reproduced like vegetable cryptogams, especially pteridophytes; have a case at the wingtip and clearly develop from the thallus or prothallus.

But to give a name at this stage is mere foolishness. It looked like a ray, but it was definitely something more. It is partially vegetable, but has three-quarters the importance of animal structure. That it comes from the sea, its symmetrical contours and certain other attributes are clearly shown; yet one cannot be exactly to the extent of its later adaptation. After all, those wings, constantly put forward the proposal of the trial. How it could have undergone such a complex evolution over the newborn earth in time to leave a trail in the Archaean rocks is so far beyond conception that it makes Lake strangely recall ancient myths about the Great Ones being filtered down from the stars and the earth being concocted.Life as a joke or a mistake; and wild stories about the cosmic hills from the outside are told by a folklore colleague in the Miskatonic English department.

At about 2:30 A. M., after deciding to postpone further work and get a little rest, he covered the dissected organism with a tarp, emerging from the laboratory tent, and, and study whole specimens with new interests. The unrelenting Antarctic sun has begun to flex their tissues slightly, so that the head points and tubes of two or three marks indicate an open fold; but Lake did not believe there was any immediate danger of decay in the nearly zero air. He, however, moved all the undetected specimens closer together and threw a spare tent on top of it to avoid direct sunlight. It will also help keep their scent away from the dogs, the hostile unrest is really a problem even in their distance and behind ever-higher and higher snow walls where more and more quota of men are rushing to improve places staying them. He had to lower the corners of the tent cloth with thick blocks of snow to hold it in the midst of the strong winds, as the titan mountains seemed to be producing some severe explosions. Early concerns about Antarctic winds were suddenly revived, and under Atwood's supervision, precautions were taken to protect tents, new dog kennels, and other areas of the world, and a plane shelter with snow on the side of the mountains. This latter sanctuary, beginning with a hard block of snow at odd moments, was not at all as high as it should have been; and Lake finally let go of all hands of the other task to work on it.

It was only after four o'clock when Lake finally prepared to leave and advised all of us to share the rest time that his clothes would wear when the shelter walls were a little higher. He held a friendly chat with Pabodie on ether, and repeated his praise of the truly remarkable exercises that had helped him make his discovery. Atwood also sent greetings and compliments. I congratulated Lake warmly, acknowledging that he was right about the west trip; and we all agreed to call wirelessly at ten in the morning. If the strong winds are over, Lake will send a plane to party at my base. Just before retiring, I sent a final message to Arkham with instructions on downplaying the news of the day for the outside world, because the full details seem radical enough to stir up a wave of disbelief until further substantiated.

The Elder