Another proposed inspiration for " At the Mountains of Madness " is Edgar Rice Burroughs "'At the Earth's Core " ( 1914 ), a novel that posits a highly intelligent reptilian race, the Mahar, living in a hollow Earth . " Consider the similarity of Burroughs'Mahar to Lovecraft's Old Ones, both of whom are presented sympathetically despite their ill-treatment of man, " writes critic William Fulwiler . " [ B ] oth are winged, web-footed, dominant races; both are scientific scholarly races with a talent for genetics, engineering, and architecture; and both races use men as cattle . " Both stories, Fulwiler points out, involve radical new drilling techniques; in both stories, humans are vivisected by nonhuman scientists.
