Paging through A Man of Misconceptions, John Glassie's new biography of Athanasius Kircher, I came across an illustration from Kircher's Mundus Subterraneus. The picture brought Richard S. Shaver to mind at once.
Wanting to share the illustration, I paged through the copy of Mundus on Internet Archive and found it on a fold-out leaf between pages 186 and 187. I took a screen shot and posted the illustration from it below.
The illustration shows a central fire at A heating a system of underground reservoirs, rivers and caves.
I can also see how Jules Verne might have been inspired by this picture.
Is it coincidental that Kircher visited the caves of Malta where part of Bill Ectric's Shaveresque novel Tamper is set?
Great illustrations! I love this kind of stuff.
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