Говард Лавкрафт - The Call of Cthulhu / Зов Ктулху

The public knows of the Miskatonic Expedition through our frequent reports to the Arkham Advertiser and Associated Press [112] Arkham Advertiser and Associated Press – «Аркхемский листок» и «Ассошиэйтид Пресс» , and through the later articles of Pabodie and myself. There were four men from the University – Pabodie, Lake [113] Lake – Лэйк of the biology department, Atwood [114] Atwood – Этвуд of the physics department – also a meteorologist – and myself, representing geology – besides sixteen assistants: seven graduate students from Miskatonic and nine skilled mechanics. Of these sixteen, twelve were qualified aeroplane pilots, they were competent wireless operators as well. Eight of them understood navigation with compass and sextant, as did Pabodie, Atwood, and I. In addition, of course, our two ships were fully manned [115] were fully manned – были полностью укомплектованы командами .

The Nathaniel Derby Pickman Foundation [116] Nathaniel Derby Pickman Foundation – Фонд Натаниэла Дерби Пикмена financed the expedition. The dogs, sledges, machines, camp materials, and unassembled parts of our five planes were delivered in Boston, and there our ships were loaded. We were marvelously well-equipped for our specific purposes. As the newspapers told, we sailed from Boston Harbor on September 2nd, 1930, taking a leisurely course down the coast and through the Panama Canal [117] Panama Canal – Панамский канал , and stopping at Samoa and Hobart, Tasmania [118] Samoa and Hobart, Tasmania – Самоа и Хобарт, Тасмания , where we got final supplies. Our ship captains were J. B. Douglas [119] J. B. Douglas – Дж. Б. Дуглас , commanding the brig Arkham , and Georg Thorfinnssen [120] Georg Thorfinnssen – Георг Торфинсен , commanding the Miskatonic – both veteran whalers in Antarctic waters.

At about 62° South Latitude we noticed our first icebergs – table-like objects with vertical sides – and just before reaching the Antarctic circle [121] Antarctic circle – Южный полярный круг , which we crossed on October 20th with appropriately ceremonies, we were considerably troubled with field ice. The falling temperature bothered me considerably after our long voyage through the tropics. Very often the curious atmospheric effects enchanted me vastly; distant bergs became the battlements of unimaginable cosmic castles.

Pushing through the ice, we regained open water at South Latitude 67°, East Longitude 175°. On the morning of October 26th a snow-clad mountain chain appeared on the south. That was an outpost of the great unknown continent and its cryptic world of frozen death. These peaks were obviously the Admiralty Range discovered by Ross [122] Admiralty Range discovered by Ross – Адмиралтейские горы, открытые Россом , and our task was to round Cape Adare [123] Cape Adare – мыс Адэр ( мыс и полуостров, расположенные на крайнем северо-востоке региона Земля Виктории, Восточная Антарктида ) and sail down the east coast of Victoria Land [124] Victoria Land – Земля Виктории ( район Антарктиды ) to our base on the shore of McMurdo Sound [125] the shore of McMurdo Sound – побережье пролива Мак-Мердо ( Мак-Мердо – пролив в Антарктиде, покрытые льдом воды которого простираются приблизительно на 55 км в длину и ширину. На севере пролив выходит в Море Росса ). , at the foot of the volcano Erebus [126] Erebus – Эребус in South Latitude 77° 9’.

The last part of the voyage was vivid and fancy-stirring. Great barren peaks of mystery, white snow, bluish ice and water lanes, and black bits of exposed granite slope. Something about the scene reminded me of the strange and disturbing Asian paintings of Nicholas Roerich [127] Nicholas Roerich – Николай Рерих (1874–1947), русский художник, сценограф, философ-мистик, писатель, путешественник, археолог, общественный деятель. , and of the disturbing descriptions of the evil plateau of Leng [128] plateau of Leng – плоскогорье Ленг ( упоминаемое Лавкрафтом холодное и пустынное плато ) which appear in the dreaded Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred. I was rather sorry, later on, that I had looked into that monstrous book at the college library.

On the 7th of November, we passed Franklin Island [129] Franklin Island – остров Франклина ( скалистый остров в проливе Кеннеди в составе пролива Нэрса, практически в центральной части Арктики ) ; and the next day the cones of Mts. Erebus and Terror [130] Mts. Erebus and Terror – вулканы Эребус и Террор on Ross Island appeared, with the long line of the Parry Mountains [131] Parry Mountains – горы Перри beyond. There was a white line of the great ice barrier, rising perpendicularly to a height of two hundred feet like the rocky cliffs of Quebec, and marking the end of southward navigation. In the afternoon we entered McMurdo Sound and stood off the coast [132] stood off the coast – встали на якорь near Mt. Erebus. Beyond it rose the white, ghostlike height of Mt. Terror, ten thousand, nine hundred feet in altitude.

One of the graduate assistants – a brilliant young fellow named Danforth [133] Danforth – Данфорт – noticed lava on the snowy slope. On the barren shore, and on the lofty ice barrier in the background, myriads of grotesque penguins walked.

Using small boats, we landed on Ross Island shortly after midnight on the morning of the 9th, preparing to unload supplies. Our camp on the frozen shore below the volcano’s slope was only a provisional one, headquarters were situated aboard the Arkham . We landed all our drilling apparatus, dogs, sledges, tents, provisions, gasoline tanks, experimental ice-melting outfit

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