Говард Лавкрафт - Зов Ктулху / The Call of Chulhu

I need not repeat what the newspapers have already published about our early work. The health of our party – twenty men and fifty-five Alaskan sledge dogs – was remarkable, though of course we had not encountered really destructive temperatures or windstorms.

We had reached Beardmore Glacier, [136] Beardmore Glacier – ледник Бирдмора (один из крупнейших долинных ледников в мире длиной более 160 километров) the largest valley glacier in the world, and the frozen sea changed to a mountainous coast line. We were some eight thousand, five hundred feet above sea-level, and when experimental drillings revealed solid ground only twelve feet down through the snow and ice at certain points, we made considerable use of the small melting apparatus.

In certain of the sandstones we found some highly interesting fossil fragments; notably ferns, seaweeds, and mollusks – all this helps to study the region’s primordial history. There was also a queer triangular, striated marking, about a foot in greatest diameter. Lake, as a biologist, found these curious marking unusually puzzling and provocative, though to my geological eye it looked not unlike some of the ripple effects common in the sedimentary rocks. Since slate is no more than a metamorphic formation, I saw no reason for extreme wonder.

On January 6th, 1931, Lake, Pabodie, Danforth, the other six students, and myself flew directly over the South Pole in two planes, but there was a high wind. This was, as the papers have stated, one of several observation flights. Distant mountains floated in the sky as enchanted cities, and often the whole white world would dissolve into a gold, silver, and scarlet land of dreams under the magic of the low midnight sun.

We resolved to carry out our original plan: to fly five hundred miles eastward and establish a new base. Our health had remained excellent. It was now midsummer, and with haste and care we might be able to conclude work by March and avoid a tedious wintering through the long Antarctic night. No doubt, we had our good luck.

Lake insisted on a westward – or rather, northwestward – trip before our shift to the new base. He was very interested in that triangular marking in the slate. He was strangely convinced that the marking was the print of some bulky, unknown, and unclassifiable organism of advanced evolution. But these fragments, with their odd marking, were five hundred million – a thousand million years old.

Boring journey of January 11th to 18th with Pabodie and five others had brought up more and more of the Archaean slate; and even I was interested in evident fossil markings in that unbelievably ancient stratum. These markings were of very primitive life forms. However I decided not to accompany the northwestward party despite Lake’s plea for my geological advice. While they were gone, I would remain at the base with Pabodie and five men and work out final plans for the eastward shift.

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it was not meant– не предполагалось

piecing together– соединение

dark age– средневековье

theosophists– теософы, сторонники мистического богопознания

great-uncle– двоюродный дед

George Gammell Angell– Джордж Гэммел Энджелл

Professor Emeritus of Semitic Languages– заслуженный профессор в отставке, специалист по семитским языкам

Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island– Брауновский университет в Провиденсе, Род-Айленд (один из наиболее престижных частных университетов США, основанный в 1764 г.)

Newport boat– ньюпортский пароход

nautical-looking negro– негр, похожий на моряка

Williams Street– Уильямс-стрит

American Archaeological Society– Американское археологическое общество

clay bas-relief– глиняный барельеф

less than an inch thick– толщиной менее дюйма (1 дюйм = 25,4 мм)

tentacled head– голова, снабжённая щупальцами

Cyclopean architectural background– фоновые циклопические строения

characters painstakingly printed– тщательно выписанные буквы

H. A. Wilcox– Г. Э. Уилкокс

John R. Legrasse– Джон Р. Леграсс

121 Bienville St., New Orleans, La., at 1908 A. A. S. Mtg. – Notes on Same, & Prof. Webb’s Acct.– 121 Бьенвиль-стрит, Новый Орлеан, на собрании А. А. О. – заметки о том же + сообщение проф. Уэбба

W. Scott-Elliot’s Atlantis and the Lost Lemuria – книга У. Скотт-Эллиота «Атлантида и исчезнувшая Лемурия»

Frazer’s Golden Bough– книга Фрэзера «Золотая ветвь»

Miss Murray’s Witch-Cult in Western Europe – книга мисс Мюррей «Культ ведьм в Западной Европе»

Henry Anthony Wilcox– Генри Энтони Уилкокс

Rhode Island School of Design– художественная школа Род-Айленда

Fleur-de-Lys Building– особняк Флёр-да-Лис

psychically hypersensitive– психически сверхчувствительный