-
Главная
-
- Книги
-
- Авторы
-
- Говард Лавкрафт
-
- Хребты безумия
-
- Стр. 27/38
Для того чтобы воспользоваться озвучкой предложений, необходимо
Войти или зарегистрироваться
Озвучка предложений доступна при наличии PRO-доступа
Купить PRO-доступ
Much
of
the
later
city
as
we
now
found
it
had
been
built
over
that
former
bed
.
The
Old
Ones
,
understanding
what
had
happened
,
and
exercising
their
always
keen
artistic
sense
,
had
carved
into
ornate
pylons
those
headlands
of
the
foothills
where
the
great
stream
began
its
descent
into
eternal
darkness
.
This
river
,
once
crossed
by
scores
of
noble
stone
bridges
,
was
plainly
the
one
whose
extinct
course
we
had
seen
in
our
aeroplane
survey
.
Its
position
in
different
carvings
of
the
city
helped
us
to
orient
ourselves
to
the
scene
as
it
had
been
at
various
stages
of
the
region
's
age-long
,
aeon-dead
history
,
so
that
we
were
able
to
sketch
a
hasty
but
careful
map
of
the
salient
features
--
squares
,
important
buildings
,
and
the
like
--
for
guidance
in
further
explorations
.
We
could
soon
reconstruct
in
fancy
the
whole
stupendous
thing
as
it
was
a
million
or
ten
million
or
fifty
million
years
ago
,
for
the
sculptures
told
us
exactly
what
the
buildings
and
mountains
and
squares
and
suburbs
and
landscape
setting
and
luxuriant
Tertiary
vegetation
had
looked
like
.
It
must
have
had
a
marvelous
and
mystic
beauty
,
and
as
I
thought
of
it
,
I
almost
forgot
the
clammy
sense
of
sinister
oppression
with
which
the
city
's
inhuman
age
and
massiveness
and
deadness
and
remoteness
and
glacial
twilight
had
choked
and
weighed
on
my
spirit
.
Yet
according
to
certain
carvings
,
the
denizens
of
that
city
had
themselves
known
the
clutch
of
oppressive
terror
;
for
there
was
a
somber
and
recurrent
type
of
scene
in
which
the
Old
Ones
were
shown
in
the
act
of
recoiling
affrightedly
from
some
object
--
never
allowed
to
appear
in
the
design
--
found
in
the
great
river
and
indicated
as
having
been
washed
down
through
waving
,
vine-draped
cycad
forests
from
those
horrible
westward
mountains
.
It
was
only
in
the
one
late-built
house
with
the
decadent
carvings
that
we
obtained
any
foreshadowing
of
the
final
calamity
leading
to
the
city
's
desertion
.
Undoubtedly
there
must
have
been
many
sculptures
of
the
same
age
elsewhere
,
even
allowing
for
the
slackened
energies
and
aspirations
of
a
stressful
and
uncertain
period
;
indeed
,
very
certain
evidence
of
the
existence
of
others
came
to
us
shortly
afterward
.
But
this
was
the
first
and
only
set
we
directly
encountered
.
We
meant
to
look
farther
later
on
;
but
as
I
have
said
,
immediate
conditions
dictated
another
present
objective
.
There
would
,
though
,
have
been
a
limit
--
for
after
all
hope
of
a
long
future
occupancy
of
the
place
had
perished
among
the
Old
Ones
,
there
could
not
but
have
been
a
complete
cessation
of
mural
decoration
.
The
ultimate
blow
,
of
course
,
was
the
coming
of
the
great
cold
which
once
held
most
of
the
earth
in
thrall
,
and
which
has
never
departed
from
the
ill-fated
poles
--
the
great
cold
that
,
at
the
world
's
other
extremity
,
put
an
end
to
the
fabled
lands
of
Lomar
and
Hyperborea
.
Just
when
this
tendency
began
in
the
antarctic
,
it
would
be
hard
to
say
in
terms
of
exact
years
.
Nowadays
we
set
the
beginning
of
the
general
glacial
periods
at
a
distance
of
about
five
hundred
thousand
years
from
the
present
,
but
at
the
poles
the
terrible
scourge
must
have
commenced
much
earlier
.
All
quantitative
estimates
are
partly
guesswork
,
but
it
is
quite
likely
that
the
decadent
sculptures
were
made
considerably
less
than
a
million
years
ago
,
and
that
the
actual
desertion
of
the
city
was
complete
long
before
the
conventional
opening
of
the
Pleistocene
--
five
hundred
thousand
years
ago
--
as
reckoned
in
terms
of
the
earth
's
whole
surface
.
In
the
decadent
sculptures
there
were
signs
of
thinner
vegetation
everywhere
,
and
of
a
decreased
country
life
on
the
part
of
the
Old
Ones
.
Heating
devices
were
shown
in
the
houses
,
and
winter
travelers
were
represented
as
muffled
in
protective
fabrics
.
Then
we
saw
a
series
of
cartouches
--
the
continuous
band
arrangement
being
frequently
interrupted
in
these
late
carvings
--
depicting
a
constantly
growing
migration
to
the
nearest
refuges
of
greater
warmth
--
some
fleeing
to
cities
under
the
sea
off
the
far-away
coast
,
and
some
clambering
down
through
networks
of
limestone
caverns
in
the
hollow
hills
to
the
neighboring
black
abyss
of
subterrene
waters
.
In
the
end
it
seems
to
have
been
the
neighboring
abyss
which
received
the
greatest
colonization
.
This
was
partly
due
,
no
doubt
,
to
the
traditional
sacredness
of
this
special
region
,
but
may
have
been
more
conclusively
determined
by
the
opportunities
it
gave
for
continuing
the
use
of
the
great
temples
on
the
honeycombed
mountains
,
and
for
retaining
the
vast
land
city
as
a
place
of
summer
residence
and
base
of
communication
with
various
mines
.
The
linkage
of
old
and
new
abodes
was
made
more
effective
by
means
of
several
gradings
and
improvements
along
the
connecting
routes
,
including
the
chiseling
of
numerous
direct
tunnels
from
the
ancient
metropolis
to
the
black
abyss
--
sharply
down-pointing
tunnels
whose
mouths
we
carefully
drew
,
according
to
our
most
thoughtful
estimates
,
on
the
guide
map
we
were
compiling
.
It
was
obvious
that
at
least
two
of
these
tunnels
lay
within
a
reasonable
exploring
distance
of
where
we
were
--
both
being
on
the
mountainward
edge
of
the
city
,
one
less
than
a
quarter
of
a
mile
toward
the
ancient
river
course
,
and
the
other
perhaps
twice
that
distance
in
the
opposite
direction
.
The
abyss
,
it
seems
,
had
shelving
shores
of
dry
land
at
certain
places
,
but
the
Old
Ones
built
their
new
city
under
water
--
no
doubt
because
of
its
greater
certainty
of
uniform
warmth
.
The
depth
of
the
hidden
sea
appears
to
have
been
very
great
,
so
that
the
earth
's
internal
heat
could
ensure
its
habitability
for
an
indefinite
period
.
The
beings
seemed
to
have
had
no
trouble
in
adapting
themselves
to
part-time
--
and
eventually
,
of
course
,
whole-time
--
residence
under
water
,
since
they
had
never
allowed
their
gill
systems
to
atrophy
.
There
were
many
sculptures
which
showed
how
they
had
always
frequently
visited
their
submarine
kinsfolk
elsewhere
,
and
how
they
had
habitually
bathed
on
the
deep
bottom
of
their
great
river
.
The
darkness
of
inner
earth
could
likewise
have
been
no
deterrent
to
a
race
accustomed
to
long
antarctic
nights
.
Decadent
though
their
style
undoubtedly
was
,
these
latest
carvings
had
a
truly
epic
quality
where
they
told
of
the
building
of
the
new
city
in
the
cavern
sea
.
The
Old
Ones
had
gone
about
it
scientifically
--
quarrying
insoluble
rocks
from
the
heart
of
the
honeycombed
mountains
,
and
employing
expert
workers
from
the
nearest
submarine
city
to
perform
the
construction
according
to
the
best
methods
.
These
workers
brought
with
them
all
that
was
necessary
to
establish
the
new
venture
--
Shoggoth
tissue
from
which
to
breed
stone
lifters
and
subsequent
beasts
of
burden
for
the
cavern
city
,
and
other
protoplasmic
matter
to
mold
into
phosphorescent
organisms
for
lighting
purposes
.
At
last
a
mighty
metropolis
rose
on
the
bottom
of
that
Stygian
sea
,
its
architecture
much
like
that
of
the
city
above
,
and
its
workmanship
displaying
relatively
little
decadence
because
of
the
precise
mathematical
element
inherent
in
building
operations
.
The
newly
bred
Shoggoths
grew
to
enormous
size
and
singular
intelligence
,
and
were
represented
as
taking
and
executing
orders
with
marvelous
quickness
.
They
seemed
to
converse
with
the
Old
Ones
by
mimicking
their
voices
--
a
sort
of
musical
piping
over
a
wide
range
,
if
poor
Lake
's
dissection
had
indicated
aright
--
and
to
work
more
from
spoken
commands
than
from
hypnotic
suggestions
as
in
earlier
times
.
They
were
,
however
,
kept
in
admirable
control
.
The
phosphorescent
organisms
supplied
light
With
vast
effectiveness
,
and
doubtless
atoned
for
the
loss
of
the
familiar
polar
auroras
of
the
outer-world
night
.
