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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
.
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
4
P.
M.
,
for
about
that
time
Lake
began
sending
in
the
most
extraordinary
and
excited
messages
.
His
working
day
had
started
unpropitiously
,
since
an
aeroplane
survey
of
the
nearly-exposed
rock
surfaces
showed
an
entire
absence
of
those
Archaean
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
Comanchian
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
Archaean
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
aeroplane
.
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
Comanchian
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
teleosts
,
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
subterrene
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
paleontologist
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
everyone
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
aeons
.
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
labyrinthodonts
and
thecodonts
,
great
mosasaur
skull
fragments
,
dinosaur
vertebrae
and
armor
plates
,
pterodactyl
teeth
and
wing
bones
,
Archaeopteryx
debris
,
Miocene
sharks
'
teeth
,
primitive
bird
skulls
,
and
other
bones
of
archaic
mammals
such
as
palaeotheres
,
Xiphodons
,
Eohippi
,
Oreodons
,
and
titanotheres
.
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
Comanchian
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
Silunan
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
.
