Gaston Roux: Explorer Confronts Alien Tentacled Cave Creatures, c.1900s

A lone explorer in knickerbockers and a wide-brimmed hat recoils in horrified fascination as he thrusts his hands outward — either warding off or reaching toward a writhing mass of serpentine, tentacled creatures lurking deep within a rocky cavern. The alien forms coil and twist in the darkness, eyes glinting from the shadows above. This is a moment of first contact gone wrong — or a man on the very edge of discovery and doom.