At the Mountains of Madness

The expedition team drives deeper into the unexplored regions and finds new and interesting fossils. Lake demands that they search harder; Dyer continues with his own research even though Lake pleads with him to help investigate. Lake begins to take more risks as he becomes obsessed with finding out more about the strange markings. A short burst of communication from the radio alerts Dyer that Lake’s team has found a previously undiscovered range of giant mountains. Lake’s plane is forced to land among these mountains and sends back more reports of their size and strangeness. Their peaks almost resemble ancient castles. Dyer’s team excitedly flies out to join Lake and establish a new camp at the foot of the mountains.

As Dyer prepares to depart for the new camp, Lake’s radioed messages become increasingly extraordinary and excited. His drilling has unearthed a network of caves below the rock and the ice. In the cave, they find fossils of large sea creatures, reptiles, dinosaurs, and even early mammals. These fossils defy the biologist’s expectations about the development of life on Earth, and Lake’s reports cause a flurry of excitement when they reach the United States. Meanwhile, Lake continues to report back on his increasingly strange discoveries of hitherto unknown species, some of which he compares to descriptions in the ancient magic textbook the Necronomicon. The new discoveries horrify the sled dogs, who bark and growl at the odd fossils. Lake’s team discovers 14 organic creatures that are neither plant nor animal. Of these, eight are perfectly preserved and more than eight feet long, with wings and strange barrel-like bodies. Lake plans to dissect one of the creatures.

Dyer listens to the reports of Lake’s dissection. He begins with one of the less well-preserved specimens, as his equipment can hardly cut open the creatures’ skin. The creature’s internal organs show no sign of decay, even though it may be more than 100 million years old. The dogs are tied up far away from the tent, but they bark furiously as Lake continues. The more he delves into the creature, the more confused he becomes. Its nervous system is incredibly complex, its brain “surprisingly advanced” (17), and its sensory organs seem more perceptive than any other creature. Though it seems amphibious, it also possesses wings. Unsure how to refer to these creatures, Lake turns to folklore and dubs them the Elder Ones, as they remind him of mythological beings that “filtered down from the stars and concocted earth life as a joke or mistake” (18).

Excitement about the discovery and concern about the increasingly dangerous weather conditions mean that few people in Dyer’s camp can sleep. By morning they have lost radio contact with Lake, so the next day they take a plane to visit his camp. From the air, they spot the remains of Lake’s camp in the shadow of the intimidating mountains. The bare mountaintops resemble a strange city built in an aesthetic of “monstrous perversions” (21), and Dyer feels a sense of dread. They discover that everyone in Lake’s camp has died or gone missing. They radio back to the ship with the terrible news but leave out many of the worst aspects of what they find.

The best-preserved Elder Ones are gone from the camp. Those that remain are badly damaged and covered in snow, their burial spot indicated by strange markings. The team cannot find the body of a man named Gedney, so they presume that he killed his colleagues in a bout of “madness” (23). Dyer and a student named Danforth survey the mountains from a plane while the remaining men repair the damaged aircraft. Dyer and Danforth refuse to divulge the true horror of what they have seen to the others, so they prepare to leave Lake’s camp the next morning. Their departure from Antarctica is relatively uneventful, though Dyer is not pleased until they are far away from the “aeon-dead continent” (24). On returning home, all men sought to dissuade anyone else from going to Antarctica. Even Danforth, who suffered a nervous breakdown, has not shared what he really saw in the mountains. However, with an expedition planning to go to Antarctica, Dyer now feels the need to break his silence.