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- Говард Лавкрафт
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- Стр. 18/38
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The
whole
tangle
was
monstrously
weathered
,
and
the
glacial
surface
from
which
the
towers
projected
was
strewn
with
fallen
blocks
and
immemorial
debris
.
Where
the
glaciation
was
transparent
we
could
see
the
lower
parts
of
the
gigantic
piles
,
and
we
noticed
the
ice-preserved
stone
bridges
which
connected
the
different
towers
at
varying
distances
above
the
ground
.
On
the
exposed
walls
we
could
detect
the
scarred
places
where
other
and
higher
bridges
of
the
same
sort
had
existed
.
Closer
inspection
revealed
countless
largish
windows
;
some
of
which
were
closed
with
shutters
of
a
petrified
material
originally
wood
,
though
most
gaped
open
in
a
sinister
and
menacing
fashion
.
Many
of
the
ruins
,
of
course
,
were
roofless
,
and
with
uneven
though
wind-rounded
upper
edges
;
whilst
others
,
of
a
more
sharply
conical
or
pyramidal
model
or
else
protected
by
higher
surrounding
structures
,
preserved
intact
outlines
despite
the
omnipresent
crumbling
and
pitting
.
With
the
field
glass
we
could
barely
make
out
what
seemed
to
be
sculptural
decorations
in
horizontal
bands
--
decorations
including
those
curious
groups
of
dots
whose
presence
on
the
ancient
soapstones
now
assumed
a
vastly
larger
significance
.
In
many
places
the
buildings
were
totally
ruined
and
the
ice
sheet
deeply
riven
from
various
geologic
causes
.
In
other
places
the
stonework
was
worn
down
to
the
very
level
of
the
glaciation
.
One
broad
swath
,
extending
from
the
plateau
's
interior
,
to
a
cleft
in
the
foothills
about
a
mile
to
the
left
of
the
pass
we
had
traversed
,
was
wholly
free
from
buildings
.
It
probably
represented
,
we
concluded
,
the
course
of
some
great
river
which
in
Tertiary
times
--
millions
of
years
ago
--
had
poured
through
the
city
and
into
some
prodigious
subterranean
abyss
of
the
great
barrier
range
.
Certainly
,
this
was
above
all
a
region
of
caves
,
gulfs
,
and
underground
secrets
beyond
human
penetration
.
Looking
back
to
our
sensations
,
and
recalling
our
dazedness
at
viewing
this
monstrous
survival
from
aeons
we
had
thought
prehuman
,
I
can
only
wonder
that
we
preserved
the
semblance
of
equilibrium
,
which
we
did
.
Of
course
,
we
knew
that
something
--
chronology
,
scientific
theory
,
or
our
own
consciousness
--
was
woefully
awry
;
yet
we
kept
enough
poise
to
guide
the
plane
,
observe
many
things
quite
minutely
,
and
take
a
careful
series
of
photographs
which
may
yet
serve
both
us
and
the
world
in
good
stead
.
In
my
case
,
ingrained
scientific
habit
may
have
helped
;
for
above
all
my
bewilderment
and
sense
of
menace
,
there
burned
a
dominant
curiosity
to
fathom
more
of
this
age-old
secret
--
to
know
what
sort
of
beings
had
built
and
lived
in
this
incalculably
gigantic
place
,
and
what
relation
to
the
general
world
of
its
time
or
of
other
times
so
unique
a
concentration
of
life
could
have
had
.
For
this
place
could
be
no
ordinary
city
.
It
must
have
formed
the
primary
nucleus
and
center
of
some
archaic
and
unbelievable
chapter
of
earth
's
history
whose
outward
ramifications
,
recalled
only
dimly
in
the
most
obscure
and
distorted
myths
,
had
vanished
utterly
amidst
the
chaos
of
terrene
convulsions
long
before
any
human
race
we
know
had
shambled
out
of
apedom
.
Here
sprawled
a
Palaeogaean
megalopolis
compared
with
which
the
fabled
Atlantis
and
Lemuria
,
Commoriom
and
Uzuldaroum
,
and
Olathoc
in
the
land
of
Lomar
,
are
recent
things
of
today
--
not
even
of
yesterday
;
a
megalopolis
ranking
with
such
whispered
prehuman
blasphemies
as
Valusia
,
R'lyeh
,
Ib
in
the
land
of
Mnar
,
and
the
Nameless
city
of
Arabia
Deserta
.
As
we
flew
above
that
tangle
of
stark
titan
towers
my
imagination
sometimes
escaped
all
bounds
and
roved
aimlessly
in
realms
of
fantastic
associations
--
even
weaving
links
betwixt
this
lost
world
and
some
of
my
own
wildest
dreams
concerning
the
mad
horror
at
the
camp
.
The
plane
's
fuel
tank
,
in
the
interest
of
greater
lightness
,
had
been
only
partly
filled
;
hence
we
now
had
to
exert
caution
in
our
explorations
.
Even
so
,
however
,
we
covered
an
enormous
extent
of
ground
--
or
,
rather
,
air
--
after
swooping
down
to
a
level
where
the
wind
became
virtually
negligible
.
There
seemed
to
be
no
limit
to
the
mountain
range
,
or
to
the
length
of
the
frightful
stone
city
which
bordered
its
inner
foothills
.
Fifty
miles
of
flight
in
each
direction
showed
no
major
change
in
the
labyrinth
of
rock
and
masonry
that
clawed
up
corpselike
through
the
eternal
ice
.
There
were
,
though
,
some
highly
absorbing
diversifications
;
such
as
the
carvings
on
the
canyon
where
that
broad
river
had
once
pierced
the
foothills
and
approached
its
sinking
place
in
the
great
range
.
The
headlands
at
the
stream
's
entrance
had
been
boldly
carved
into
Cyclopean
pylons
;
and
something
about
the
ridgy
,
barrel-shaped
designs
stirred
up
oddly
vague
,
hateful
,
and
confusing
semi-remembrances
in
both
Danforth
and
me
.
We
also
came
upon
several
star-shaped
open
spaces
,
evidently
public
squares
,
and
noted
various
undulations
in
the
terrain
.
Where
a
sharp
hill
rose
,
it
was
generally
hollowed
out
into
some
sort
of
rambling-stone
edifice
;
but
there
were
at
least
two
exceptions
.
Of
these
latter
,
one
was
too
badly
weathered
to
disclose
what
had
been
on
the
jutting
eminence
,
while
the
other
still
bore
a
fantastic
conical
monument
carved
out
of
the
solid
rock
and
roughly
resembling
such
things
as
the
well-known
Snake
Tomb
in
the
ancient
valley
of
Petra
.
Flying
inland
from
the
mountains
,
we
discovered
that
the
city
was
not
of
infinite
width
,
even
though
its
length
along
the
foothills
seemed
endless
.
After
about
thirty
miles
the
grotesque
stone
buildings
began
to
thin
out
,
and
in
ten
more
miles
we
came
to
an
unbroken
waste
virtually
without
signs
of
sentient
artifice
.
