Journey to the Center of the Earth

Journey to the Center of the Earth Imagery

The Walls of the Crater

During his adventures, Axel marvels that "the lava, porous in places, was covered with little round bulbs; crystals of opaque quartz, decorated with clear drops of glass, hung from the vaulted ceiling like chandeliers, and seemed to light up as we passed. It was as if the spirits of the underground were lighting up their palace to welcome their guests from the Earth" (92).

Seaweed

Axel expresses amazement at some of the marine plants that he encounters: "Our raft swept along beside pieces of seaweed some three to four thousand feet in length, immense snakes which stretched out far beyond the horizon; it gave me great amusement to gaze along their infinite ribbon-like lengths, thinking each moment that I had reached the end" (149).

Bones

One remarkable sight is the field of bones that Axel comes across: "...a field, a plain of bones, appeared before our eyes. It looked like an immense cemetery, where the generations of 2,000 years mingled their eternal dust. Large bulges of remains stretched out in the layered distance. They undulated away to the limits of the horizon and were lost in an out-of-focus mist" (178).

The Ascent

Among of Verne's most memorable descriptions is the image of the raft with the three men on it, hurtling toward the surface of the Earth on a spout of boiling water and mist; the walls crack and splinter around them in the eruption.