[00:16.20]I am writing this under an appreciable mental strain
[00:20.68]Since by tonight I shall be no more
[00:24.47]Penniless, and at the end of my supply of the drug
[00:28.00]Which alone makes life endurable
[00:30.65]I can bear the torture no longer
[00:32.44]
[00:35.88]And shall cast myself from this garret window
[00:38.50]Into the squalid street below.
[00:41.79]Do not think from my slavery to morphine
[00:44.28]That I am a weakling or a degenerate.
[00:47.57]When you have read these hastily scrawled pages you may guess
[00:51.16]Though never fully realise
[00:53.21]Why it is that I must have forgetfulness or death
[00:59.92]
[01:01.32]It was in one of the most open
[01:03.47]And least frequented parts of the broad Pacific
[01:06.87]That the packet of which
[01:07.66]I was supercargo fell a victim to the German sea-raider.
[01:11.95]The great war was then at its very beginning
[01:15.55]And the ocean forces of the Hun
[01:17.00]Had not completely sunk to their later degradation
[01:20.20]So that our vessel was made a legitimate prize
[01:23.24]Whilst we of her crew were treated with all the fairness
[01:25.73]And consideration due us as naval prisoners
[01:28.48]
[01:29.84]So liberal, indeed, was the discipline of our captors
[01:33.08]That five days after we were taken
[01:34.89]I managed to escape alone in a small boat
[01:38.52]With water and provisions for a good length of time
[01:42.11]When I finally found myself adrift and free
[01:46.04]I had but little idea of my surroundings
[01:51.24]Never a competent navigator
[01:52.89]I could only guess vaguely by the sun and stars
[01:55.68]That I was somewhat south of the equator
[01:58.56]
[01:59.46]Of the longitude I knew nothing
[02:02.46]And no island or coast-line was in sight
[02:07.01]The weather kept fair, and for uncounted days
[02:10.66]I drifted aimlessly beneath the scorching sun
[02:13.50]Waiting either for some passing ship
[02:16.24]Or to be cast on the shores of some habitable land
[02:20.68]But neither ship nor land appeared
[02:25.82]And I began to despair in my solitude
[02:28.13]Upon the heaving vastnesses of unbroken blue
[02:32.89]
[02:34.28]The change happened whilst I slept
[02:38.16]Its details I shall never know; for my slumber
[02:40.60]Though troubled and dream-infested, was continuous.
[02:44.70]When at last I awaked
[02:47.03]It was to discover myself half sucked
[02:49.89]Into a slimy expanse of hellish black mire
[02:53.77]Which extended about me
[02:56.02]In monotonous undulations as far as I could see
[02:59.47]And in which my boat lay grounded some distance away
[03:03.36]
[03:07.07]Though one might well imagine that my first sensation would be of wonder
[03:10.66]I was in reality more horrified than astonished
[03:16.84]For there was in the air and in the rotting soil a sinister quality
[03:21.83]Which chilled me to the very core
[03:25.25]The region was putrid with the carcasses of decaying fish
[03:29.09]And of other less describable things
[03:32.07]Which I saw protruding from the nasty mud of the unending plain
[03:37.36]
[03:43.83]Perhaps I should not hope to convey in mere words
[03:47.01]The unutterable hideousness
[03:49.00]That can dwell in absolute silence and barren immensity
[03:54.98]There was nothing within hearing
[03:57.38]And nothing in sight save a vast reach of black slime
[04:06.35]The sun was blazing down from a sky
[04:09.40]Which seemed to me almost black in its cloudless cruelty
[04:13.09]As though reflecting the inky marsh beneath my feet
[04:15.87]
[04:17.57]As I crawled into the stranded boat I realised
[04:21.53]That only one theory could explain my position
[04:24.91]Through some unprecedented volcanic upheaval
[04:27.85]A portion of the ocean floor must have been thrown to the surface
[04:32.63]Exposing regions which for innumerable millions of years
[04:37.16]Had lain hidden under unfathomable watery depths
[04:40.94]
[04:42.31]So great was the extent of the new land which had risen beneath me
[04:46.40]That I could not detect the faintest noise of the surging ocean
[04:51.68]Strain my ears as I might
[04:54.57]Nor were there any sea-fowl to prey upon the dead things
[04:58.40]For several hours I sat thinking or brooding in the boat
[05:02.04]Which lay upon its side
[05:03.73]And afforded a slight shade as the sun moved across the heavens
[05:07.62]As the day progressed, the ground lost some of its stickiness
[05:13.45]And seemed likely to dry sufficiently
[05:15.61]For travelling purposes in a short time.
[05:19.02]That night I slept but little
[05:22.65]And the next day I made for myself a pack containing food and water
[05:27.95]
[05:27.90]On the third morning I found the soil dry enough to walk upon with ease
[05:32.19]The odour of the fish was maddening
[05:35.53]But I was too much concerned with graver things to mind so slight an evil
[05:40.66]And set out boldly for an unknown goal
[05:46.54]All day I forged steadily westward
[05:49.58]Guided by a far-away hummock
[05:51.53]Which rose higher than any other elevation on the rolling desert
[05:54.63]
[05:56.47]That night I encamped
[05:58.56]And on the following day still travelled toward the hummock
[06:02.66]Though that object seemed scarcely nearer than when I had first espied it
[06:08.10]By the fourth evening I attained the base of the mound
[06:12.18]Which turned out to be much higher than it had appeared from a distance
[06:16.57]An intervening valley setting it out in sharper relief from the general surface
[06:21.71]Too weary to ascend, I slept in the shadow of the hill
[06:27.49]I know not why my dreams were so wild that night
[06:32.33]But ere the waning and fantastically gibbous moon
[06:36.16]Had risen far above the eastern plain
[06:39.26]I was awake in a cold perspiration, determined to sleep no more.
[06:43.10]
[06:44.90]Such visions as I had experienced were too much for me to endure again.
[06:49.48]And in the glow of the moon I saw how unwise I had been to travel by day.
[06:55.28]Without the glare of the parching sun
[06:57.48]My journey would have cost me less energy; indeed
[07:02.41]I now felt quite able to perform the ascent which had deterred me at sunset
[07:07.74]Picking up my pack, I started for the crest of the eminence
[07:13.23]I have said that the unbroken monotony of the rolling plain
[07:17.02]Was a source of vague horror to me
[07:19.71]But I think my horror was greater when I gained the summit of the mound
[07:24.01]And looked down the other side into an immeasurable pit
[07:30.72]Whose black recesses the moon had not yet soared high enough to illumine
[07:36.50]I felt myself on the edge of the world
[07:41.09]Peering over the rim into a fathomless chaos of eternal night
[07:45.73]
[07:47.77]As the moon climbed higher in the sky
[07:50.88]I began to see that the slopes of the valley
[07:52.97]Were not quite so perpendicular as I had imagined
[07:56.06]Ledges and outcroppings of rock afforded
[08:00.14]Fairly easy foot-holds for a descent
[08:02.64]Whilst after a drop of a few hundred feet
[08:06.13]The declivity became very gradual
[08:08.78]
[08:09.97]Urged on by an impulse which I cannot definitely analyse
[08:13.85]I scrambled with difficulty down the rocks
[08:16.95]And stood on the gentler slope beneath
[08:22.33]All at once my attention was captured by a vast
[08:27.16]And singular object on the opposite slope
[08:30.10]Which rose steeply about an hundred yards ahead of me
[08:34.08]An object that gleamed whitely
[08:37.93]In the newly bestowed rays of the ascending moon
[08:41.08]
[08:42.82]That it was merely a gigantic piece of stone
[08:47.46]I soon assured myself
[08:49.81]But I was conscious of a distinct impression
[08:52.79]That its contour and position were not altogether the work of Nature
[09:00.27]A closer scrutiny filled me with sensations I cannot express
[09:05.34]For despite its enormous magnitude
[09:08.89]And its position in an abyss which had yawned at the bottom of the sea
[09:13.23]Since the world was young
[09:15.57]I perceived beyond a doubt that the strange object
[09:18.72]Was a well-shaped monolith
[09:20.71]Whose massive bulk had known the workmanship
[09:23.79]And perhaps the worship of living and thinking creatures
[09:30.12]
[09:35.82]Dazed and frightened
[09:37.96]Yet not without a certain thrill of the scientist’s delight
[09:41.77]I examined my surroundings more closely
[09:45.51]The moon, now near the zenith
[09:48.98]Shone weirdly and vividly above the towering steeps that hemmed in the chasm
[09:56.04]And revealed the fact that a far-flung body of water flowed at the bottom
[10:00.53]Winding out of sight in both directions
[10:03.33]And almost lapping my feet as I stood on the slope
[10:07.56]Across the chasm, the wavelets washed the base of the Cyclopean monolith
[10:14.30]On whose surface I could now trace both inscriptions and crude sculptures
[10:21.70]The writing was in a system of hieroglyphics unknown to me
[10:25.29]And unlike anything I had ever seen in books
[10:29.19]
[10:29.55]Consisting for the most part of conventionalised aquatic symbols
[10:36.10]Several characters obviously represented marine things
[10:39.28]Which are unknown to the modern world
[10:41.73]But whose decomposing forms I had observed on the ocean-risen plain
[10:50.36]It was the pictorial carving, however
[10:53.41]That did most to hold me spellbound
[10:56.10]Plainly visible across the intervening water
[10:59.31]On account of their enormous size
[11:01.17]
[11:03.06]I think that these things were supposed to depict men—
[11:06.72]At least a certain sort of men
[11:11.08]Though the creatures were shewn disporting like fishes
[11:14.71]In the waters of some marine grotto
[11:16.87]Or paying homage at some monolithic shrine
[11:20.47]Which appeared to be under the waves as well
[11:24.37]Of their faces and forms I dare not speak in detail
[11:29.41]For the mere remembrance makes me grow faint
[11:34.45]
[11:35.14]They were damnably human in general outline
[11:37.79]Despite webbed hands and feet
[11:39.93]Shockingly wide and flabby lips, glassy
[11:43.78]Bulging eyes, and other features less pleasant to recall
[11:48.57]Curiously enough, they seemed to have been chiselled badly
[11:52.22]Out of proportion with their scenic background
[11:55.47]For one of the creatures
[11:56.41]Was shewn in the act of killing a whale represented as
[12:00.17]But little larger than himself
[12:02.97]I remarked, as I say, their grotesqueness and strange size
[12:06.59]But in a moment decided that they were merely
[12:09.80]The imaginary gods of some primitive fishing or seafaring tribe
[12:15.20]Awestruck at this unexpected glimpse into a past
[12:18.50]Beyond the conception of the most daring anthropologist
[12:23.03]I stood musing whilst the moon cast queer reflections
[12:28.93]On the silent channel before me
[12:39.56]
[12:54.57]Then suddenly I saw it
[12:58.10]With only a slight churning to mark its rise to the surface
[13:02.31]The thing slid into view above the dark waters
[13:07.11]Vast, and loathsome
[13:10.36]It darted like a stupendous monster of nightmares to the monolith
[13:15.35]About which it flung its gigantic scaly arms
[13:19.55]The while it bowed its hideous head
[13:22.69]And gave vent to certain measured sounds
[13:27.53]
[13:31.62]I think I went mad then
[13:40.25]Of my frantic ascent of the slope and cliff
[13:42.99]And of my delirious journey back to the stranded boat
[13:47.26]I remember little
[13:49.37]I believe I sang a great deal
[13:51.03]And laughed oddly when I was unable to sing
[13:54.81]I have indistinct recollections of a great storm
[13:57.79]Some time after I reached the boat
[14:00.89]At any rate I know that
[14:02.89]I heard peals of thunder and other tones
[14:04.89]Which Nature utters only in her wildest moods
[14:11.63]
[14:17.87]When I came out of the shadows I was in a San Francisco hospital
[14:21.70]Brought thither by the captain of the American ship
[14:25.00]Which had picked up my boat in mid-ocean
[14:29.33]In my delirium I had said much
[14:32.37]But found that my words had been given scant attention
[14:37.01]Of any land upheaval in the Pacific, my rescuers knew nothing
[14:41.96]Nor did I deem it necessary to insist upon a thing
[14:45.70]Which I knew they could not believe
[14:49.68]Once I sought out a celebrated ethnologist
[14:53.52]And amused him with peculiar questions
[14:56.26]Regarding the ancient Philistine legend of Dagon the Fish-God
[15:03.09]But soon perceiving that he was hopelessly conventional
[15:07.29]I did not press my inquiries
[15:09.68]
[15:12.17]It is at night, especially when the moon is gibbous and waning
[15:17.81]That I see the thing. I tried morphine
[15:23.00]But the drug has given only transient surcease
[15:27.94]And has drawn me into its clutches as a hopeless slave
[15:33.56]So now I am to end it all
[15:38.75]Having written a full account for the information
[15:42.35]Or the contemptuous amusement of my fellow-men
[15:46.64]I Often ask myself if it could not all have been a pure phantasm—
[15:54.32]A mere freak of fever as I lay sun-stricken
[15:58.81]And raving in the open boat
[16:00.57]After my escape from the German man-of-war
[16:04.80]This I ask myself
[16:10.43]But ever does there come before me a hideously vivid vision in reply
[16:16.47]I cannot think of the deep sea without shuddering at the nameless things
[16:22.84]That may at this very moment
[16:24.99]Be crawling and floundering on its slimy bed
[16:29.62]
[16:31.07]Worshipping their ancient stone idols
[16:34.81]And carving their own detestable likenesses
[16:39.15]On submarine obelisks of water-soaked granite
[16:43.67]I dream of a day when they may rise above the billows
[16:48.97]To drag down in their reeking talons the remnants of puny
[16:53.25]War-exhausted mankind—of a day when the land shall sink
[17:01.09]And the dark ocean floor shall ascend amidst universal pandemonium
[17:08.21]The end is near. I hear a noise against the door
[17:15.34]As of some immense slippery body lumbering against it
[17:18.53]It shall not find me.
[17:21.27]God, that hand!
[17:23.42]The window! The window!