At the Mountains of Madness an Annotated

Originally composed in 1931, H.P. Lovecraft's novella At the Mountains of Madness (1936) is one of his most famous and successful stories, with numerous overt connections to his other works.The story is narrated by Professor William Dyer, a geologist with Miskatonic University. He begins by explaining that he does not wish to tell his story, but is compelled to because men of science will not heed his warnings without explanations. Dyer led a team sponsored by the university that intended to use an advanced new drilling technology to extract samples from Antarctica. Dyer's team included Frank Pabodie, the inventor of the drill, as well as Lake and Atwood, fellow professors from the university, and assistants. Dyer makes it clear he is attempting to dissuade a planned second mission from following in their footsteps.Dyer details their initial work taking bore samples. Some of the samples seem to have triangular-shaped prints in them, but the team dismisses these as distortions. As the team moves over the South Pole, it sees a previously unknown range of mountains. Lake announces that he will take a team to explore this new feature, despite Dyer's misgivings. Lake and his team fly off in one of the expedition's airplanes, which crashes near the mountains. Lake and his team survive and set up a camp at the site.The team begins core sampling near the crash site and discovers an underground cavern. They cautiously enter the cavern and discover that it is filled with bones and shells--a huge amount of animal remains of all kinds. At first, the team is disturbed, but Dyer explains this by theorizing that the bones were carried into the cavern via runoff during ice melts, which satisfies the others.Further exploration reveals more than a dozen fossilized artifacts, described as "barrel-shaped." These fossils are in nearly perfect condition despite having clearly been in the cavern for a very long time. The team transports some of these fossils to the surface to have their first clear look at the creatures. Their bodies are barrel-shaped, with tentacle-like arms, star-shaped heads--and triangular feet that match the prints seen in earlier core samples.