So... Jules Verne was right about YET ANOTHER thing? RE: Ancient giant mushrooms dotting the shore of the prehistoric coast in Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Considering that the fungus theory was raised by Dawson in 1859 (and widely debated), and JttCotE was written in 1864, it's likely Verne was influenced by modern scientific debate.
That's exactly what I thought when I read the title! I'm right now in the process of reading Journey to the Center of the Earth and this struck me. Jules Verne really was quite the visionary...
Of course, he was also wrong about a lot of things. I recall in 20,000 Leagues they travel under the Antarctic ice all the way over the pole... because there was no land there in 1870, I guess.
We don't know that there isn't a way to go under the Antarctic ice mass .. there may well be large enough rivers under the ice, navigable with fancy machines.