ON THE From the Dublin University Magazine. SITE OF THE DESTROYED CITIES OF THE PLAIŃ. SIR-Whatever respects the facts recorded in Scripture must always be deemed of high importance. In the Dublin University Magazine for this present September, there is a paper by your correspondent," J. W. C.," in which he gives an account of the recent travels of M. de Sauley. I have not had an opportunity of perusing that work; but, concluding that your correspondent's account of it is correct, I shall venture to offer a few observations upon that part of it which respects the site of the destroyed cities of the Plain of Jordan. My remarks will be more intelligible, if I copy that portion of your correspondent's paper to which I refer : "M. de Sauley had long looked toward the shores of the Dead Sea and the land of the Moabites as a mysterious terra incognita, of which so many strange legends had been promulgated, that he became ardently desirous to examine them on the spot, and separate, if possible, the real from the imaginary, by personal investigation. In this difficult journey very few had preceded him. From a close perusal of scriptural texts and classical authorities, in the original tongues, he had adopted certain theories of his own, in opposition to others sanctioned by long currency and general acceptation, particularly as regards the condemned cities of the Pentapolis, including the guilty Sodom and Gomorrah. Why, in the face of direct assertion to the contrary, it should ever have been supposed that these cities were submerged under the sea, which there and then was elevated for the purpose, it seems difficult to understand; but the fallacy, once started, established itself by degrees, and has been perpetuated by hereditary descent. The visible ruins of the Cities of the Plain our author believed to be still in existence. He expected to findsearched for, and found them; not under the troubled and infected waters of the salt inlund lake, so erroneously set down as being at once their shroud and sepulchre, but on the shores and in the valleys, where they originally stood, and where he and his companions looked upon and rode among their widely-extended remains, lying as they were overthrown, blasted by the fire of heaven, and scattered in awful desolation. Travelling along the line of shore from the mouth of the Kedron, on the north-west, to that of the Arnon, in the eastern land of the Amorites, or more than three quarters of the whole circumference of the sea, they struck boldly into the south, and ventured into Karak, the modern capital of Moab. They then returned by a different route, and passed successively through the ruins of Zeboim, Sodom, Zoar, and Admah, never before identified or believed to be in existence, but palpable and traceable in their full extent; placed exactly where scriptural and classical authorities combine to place them, evidently reduced to their present state by volcanic agency and the effects of fire." Dublin University Magazine, vol. xlii., pp. 367, 375. These statements profess to exhibit the views of M. de Saulcy; and to them, as I understand him, "J. W. C." gives his full adhesion. Now, since I certainly deem the whole theory directly contradicted by SCRIPTURAL RECORD OF FACTS AS CONNECTED WITH GEOGRAPHY, though propounded, I doubt not, with the very best intentions, I cannot think myself out of place in distinctly specifying my objections. That it should ever have been supposed that the guilty cities were SUBMERGED under the sea, which then and there was ELEVATED for the purpose, is said by your correspondent to be, in the face of direct assertion to the contrary, both scriptural and classical. Here we have Two statements, NEITHER of which can be supported-the non-submersion of the cities, and the elevation of the sea. I. The alleged direct assertion to the contrary of the long-established belief as to the geograph ical site of the destroyed cities, must be sought, according to "J. W. C.," partly in classical, and partly in scriptural authorities. 1. Now, to say nothing of the vagueness of those pagan writers who have concurred in specifying the facts, such as Diodorus, and Tacitus, and Strabo, and Pliny, and Solinus, their statements, from the mere circumstance of their chronological lateness, can be of no evidential value either pro or con. The point must obviously be determined by the very ancient written narrative of Moses, which, to its antiquity, adds the seal of inspiration, precluding all possibility of an inaccurate statement of facts. What, then, does this narrative teach us? Why, it most unequivocally pronounces that the guilty cities were geographically situated, not on the narrow margin of the present Dead Sea, where M. de Sauley thinks he has discovered their ruins, but in the rich plain of Jordan, described as well watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, and compared to the Garden of the Lord, as exemplified by the fertile and flat land of Lower Egypt. Gen. xiii. 10. Where this flat, and fertile, and well watered Jordanic plain was, there, according to Scripture, stood the guilty cities. Hence, they are fitly and consistently termed the Cities of the Plain; that is to say, the plain through the midst of which the river Jordan then flowed; otherwise, it could with no propriety have been denominated the plain of Jordan.— Gen. xiii. 12, 10. : 3. I do not at all dispute, that M. de Saulcy found some ruins on the blasted margin of the Lake; but we cannot, in defiance of all scriptural evidence, admit them to have been the ruins of Zeboim, Sodom, Zoar, and Admah. 2. The geographical locality of this fertile That is to say: Lot, for the convenience of plain, which was extensive enough to make pasturage, moved about from one city of the Lot desire it for the pasturage of his numer-plain to another, until he had finally pitched ous herds and flocks, agreeably to the nomadic his tent toward Sodom, shortly before the cohabits of the East, is the next point to be currence of the fearful volcanic eruption. Ultiascertained and this is a matter of prime mately, however, we find him occupying a importance to the present question; for, if house in Sodom, while doubtless his herdswe can ascertain the geographical locality of men were then pasturing his cattle in the imthe plain, it is quito clear that we shall also mediately neighboring part of the great plain. ascertain the geographical locality of the cities. - Gen. xix. 1-6. Now, it is obvious that a well watered plain, termed the whole plain of Jordan (Gen. xiii. 10), and chosen by Lot as much preferable to the plains in the south of Canaan for the purpose of extensive pasturage, can by no possibility be the narrow margin of the present Dead Sea, even though, previous to the catastrophe, it was not volcanically blasted as at present. Such a strip of land at the foot of lofty mountains both on the west and on the east, if we suppose the Dead Sea to have been then in existence, answers not to the character of a fertile plain, well watered everywhere, and compared to the Delta of Lower Egypt. The plain chosen by Lot, must, on the contrary, have been the plain watered by the southern Jordan; for, in point of fact, the Dead Sea was not then in existence, though it now occupies the region between the mountains of Judah and the mountains of Moab, which was previously occupied by that great and eminently fertile plain. This point is fully established by more than a single fact. Zoar, in truth, was not destroyed at all; but was still in existence when Josephus wrote; and, as for the ruins seen by M. de Saucly on the surface of the lava, that very circumstance, even independently of the geographical impossibility, proves that they could not have been the ruins of the destroyed cities of the plain. II. But your correspondent thinks it quite absurd to suppose that the sea was, then and there, elevated to its present height for the purpose of submerging the cities. 1. I may be mistaken; but this remark seems to imply, that, in his opinion, the Dead Sea was always where it now is: whence he pronounces it absurd to imagine, that, for the purpose of submerging the cities, it was suddenly elevated to its present height. If I have erred in supposing such to be his Burckhardt has ascertained that, after flow-view, I heartily beg his pardon. Still, I know ing through the great plain, and after having been made to irrigate it by various artificial, or perhaps natural, channels, like the Nile in Egypt, the Jordan again became contracted, and, passing along a rocky and now deserted bed, ultimately fell into the eastern horn of the Red Sea. Accordingly, we are told that, when Lot separated from Abram, after they had been jointly pasturing their cattle in the southern plains of the land of Canaan, he journeyed EASTWARD, inasmuch as he had chosen for himself all the plain of Jordan. Gen. xiii. 11, 12, 18. From these ascertained points, nothing can be more clear than that the whole of the once fertile plain of Jordan is now covered by the waters of the Dead Sea. Consequently, since the guilty Cities of the Plain, as the very name descriptively imports, were built in different parts of this plain, they also, or what remains of them, must be now similarly covered by the same great asphaltic lake. With this exactly accord the scriptural ac counts of the movements of Lot: "Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan: and Lot dwelled in the Cities of the Plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom." Gen. xiii. 12. not where he can have learned his idea, that the Dead Sea has been elevated to a level higher than that which it had prior to the occurrence of the catastrophe. If it existed at all before the destruction of the cities of the plain, its level must, at that time, have sunk, instead of-being elevated. For it is well known, that, so far from its waters being elevated, they are depressed (unless my memory fails me) to about 1,800 feet below the level of the Mediterranean, and consequently below the nearly equal level of the Red Sea. 2. This depression fully accounts for the fact of their no longer emptying themselves, as Burkhardt found they had once done, into the eastern horn of the Red Sea. three hundred miles from the sources of that The prolongation of the valley of the Jordan (says Colonel Leake-no mean authority in mat ters of antiquarian research), which completes a longitudinal separation of Syria, extending for river to the eastern branch of the Red Sea, is a Holy Land, indicating that the Jordan once dismost important feature in the geography of the charged itself into the Red Sea; and confirming the truth of that great volcanic convulsion described in the nineteenth chapter of Genesis, which interrupted the course of the river, which converted into a lake the fertile plain occupied by the cities of Admah, Zeboim, Sodom, and Go-| morrah, and which changed all the valley to the southward of that district into a sandy desert. -Preface to Burckhardt's Travels in Syria and the Holy Land, pp. v. vi. 3. Colonel Leake's opinion is precisely the same as my own; and, as it is deduced from scriptural testimony, combined with ascertained matter of fact, I do not very well see how it can be erroneous. Yet, in this narrow margin, and on the top of the lava - for otherwise they could not far removed from the centrical region of what have been seen-M. de Sauley would place, plain, the destroyed Cities of the Plain of was once an ample and proverbially fertile Jordan; and your correspondent sanctions his arrangement. When the original level of the fertile plain, through which the Jordan flowed in its way to the Red Sea, was volcanically changed by a violent depression or sinking of the ground, the stream of Jordan could, of course, no 6. The small town of Bela, or Zoar, which longer reach its ancient outlet; but, flowing which was saved from overthrow at the peti was NOT destroyed with the other cities, but into the vast gulf, which has been actually tion of Lot, that he might escape thither, sounded by Captain Lynch, gradually formed an immense lake, which thenceforward covered must, according to the subsequent journeying both the plain and the cities, and which of the patriarch, have been situated quite at (most probably through constant evaporation) and at the foot of those mountains which the south-eastern extremity of the great plain, never attained a higher level than the present afterwards constituted the land of his son, comparatively low level of 1800 feet beneath that of the Mediterranean. Moab. To these mountains he finally with 4. In the scriptural account of the catas-drew, from a distrustful fear that Zoar, though trophe, no mention is or could be made of the spared for a season, would be ultimately delake; because the Jordan had not then formed stroyed like the other cities. Gen. xix. 30. it, by filling up the huge chasm. Hence we are consistently told that when Abram gat up early in the morning of the following day, he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrab, and toward ALL the land of the plain; and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.-Gen. xix. 27, 28. us. Of this fact he quite incidentally informs The battle of the kings was fought in the vale of the Siddim, and the neighborhood of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. xiv. 8). This vale, therefore, must have been some part of the great Plain of Jordan, now covered by the Dead Sea. Accordingly, Moses expressly tells us that the Dead Sea of his time coincided with the quondam vale of the Siddim. All these (kings), says he, were joined together in the vale of the Siddim, WHICH IS THE SALT SEA (Gen. xiv. 3). The quondam vale, or plain-like valley, between the mountains of Judah on the west, and the mountains of Moab on the east, had, when Moses wrote, become, by the constant influx of the Jordan, what he calls THE SALT SEA. 5. That M. de Sauley discovered certain ruins on the blasted margin of the lake, and that the volcanic character of the margin is a most decided confirmation of the Mosaic account, I make no doubt; but such a discovery affords no very logical proof that they were the ruins of the destroyed cities. 7. I have now, with Scripture in my hand, given what I believe to be the true account of the Cities of the Plain. Captain Lynch, who sounded the Dead Sea, found the extraordinary phenomenon of a sudden dip of its bottom, from eighteen feet, as I recollect, to one thousand eight hundred feet. This was the huge chusm which Jordan filled up so as to make the present lake; but the ground was volcanically depressed to such a depth, that the river was henceforth cut off from its ancient course to Sherburn House, September 19th, 1853. From Chambers' Journal. MEMORIES. BY MARIE J. EWEN. A ORIMSON Sunset's memory, A memory of the ancient sea, A memory of an antique room, And pictures quaint, and shadows strange, A quiet walk one vernal eve, Beneath the aspen tree, With their wailing voice, that made me grieve An hour alone, spent silently In the dim church, about the fall From Sharpe's Magazine. TAKING stock is a phrase which has a peculiar business meaning. I am not a business man myself, and have not any very precise Inotion of the operation which that phrase designates, except that periodically it involves a general taking down of goods in shops and warehouses, a general confusion in bales and packages, and an immense amount of bustle and work among clerks, porters, and such like people; the object being to see what is available, and strike a balance of profit and loss. Though I do not know much about it, as I daresay will be apparent to those whose paths lie along the track of commerce, I have taken hold of the phrase as a very expressive one, and apply it in a way of my own. I know plenty of people who never had a business transaction in their lives, and yet are constantly occupied taking stock. In these cases, however, the estimates they make are not of their own property, but of the property of their friends, neighbors, and acquaintances, &c. I purpose to give a few instances of the social phase of stock-taking, for the information of my readers. to she gauzy yellow stuff over the gilt frames, to keep them from getting dirty, indeed hide the specks and spots on them, that was nearer the truth. She got at the secret, too, of those covers over the chairs in the parlor; she turned one of the covers up one day, when she was left alone there for five minutes, and made certain they were put on to hide the shabbiness of the seats. She had missed some of the plate, too, that used to glisten upon the table. She heard the French cook had been discharged, because he was saucy; she knew better than that it was because he was too expensive. She drew her own conclusions when she saw the liveries worn longer than they used to be; and she gathered confirmation for her ideas when she detected the fact that Mrs. Wellbred's gown was a dyed silk, and her new bonnet always used to wear such good bonnets cheap one. In fact, Mrs. Ferrett had, for many years, kept a regular Dr. and Cr. stock account of everything at Oldington House, and her conclusions were, that the Wellbreds were going down in the world. She had long been on the look-out for some decided change, indeed; and when she heard of the removal, she was sure it had come, and she was right. Mrs. Ferrett, old Ferrett's widow, who was She had been to see for herself, and it was a Miss Weasel, is one of the greatest stock- just as she expected. There were the old takers of my acquaintance. I call in on her looking-glasses, with the frames newly gauzed; sometimes, to hear how the old lady is getting the old chairs, with fresh covers; the old, on, and what she has to say of other folk- turned "sides into middle" carpets cut to the in fact to take stock of her, and to get an smaller rooms of Newstone Cottage, so as to insight into her stock-takings of other people; conceal their defects. The tall footman had and this is the sort of information I usually given place to a small page, who did not eat gain at such visits. Mrs. Ferrett has been to so much, of course, nor want such high wages, see Mrs. Wellbred. I recollect the Well- nor cost so much to clothe; and the sleek breds, of course, that used to live at Olding-horses and stately old family carriage were ton House in such grand style. I recollect exchanged for a pony and four-wheeled chaise, the tall footman they used to keep, and the fat coachman, and the sleek horses of the heavy old carriage, with all the arms and quarterings of the Wellbreds upon the panels. Well, Mrs. Ferrett has found a great difference in the Wellbreds; and she tells me all Very different was her account of her call about it. I had heard that the Wellbreds upon Mrs. Worsted. Irecollected the Worsthad removed from Oldington House to New-eds, of course. Why, old Tom Worsted was stone Cottage. The reason was that the old place was damp, and that Mrs. Wellbred's health required a change. That might impose on the world at large, but it did not impose upon Mrs. Ferrett. She is not accustomed to take anything upon trust-she takes stock for herself always. Besides, she has had her suspicions (I know she has, she remarks to me) for some time. She had noticed Intely at Oldington House that things were getting rather shabbier than they used to be. It did not escape her eyes that the carpet in the dining-room had been turned what ladies call," sides into middle," to get the worn places out of sight and into corners. It did not deceive her when they, put that which Mrs. Wellbred could drive herself, and so save the coachman. In short, Mrs. Ferrett had taken a complete stock-account of the new place, and she pitied the poor Wellbreds that she did. hardly better than a day-laborer when she first knew him. She remembered when he used to wear patched shoes, and his wife used to sit in her shabby cotton gown, mending his torn coat, and darning his well-worn trousers. When they lived in that little place down the lane I knew where it was they had hardly any furniture to speak of. Why, they had wooden-bottomed chairs, and a deal table with painted legs and an oilskin cover, in the sitting-room; and their best room was a make-shift sort of place, with common drugget, and a Pembroke table, on rickety legs, and crazy old chairs, and washed-out chintz curtains. Well, it was very different now, she could tell me. She did not know how some people got on-she did not understand | Meek, as you would know as well as I do, if it at all herself, but the Worsteds had gone you were an intimate of the Meeks' family up in the world, that was certain. They had circle. You should see her when she comes got into a new house in the square. a very home at night from the little dance at different place to that in the lane very re- Mrs. Caper's, where she has been spending spectable in fact, quite a superior resi- the evening. How she shakes off her calm, dence; and it had been furnished, spick and reserved manner with her shawl, and throws span new, from top to bottom. She had been her shyness on to the side-table with her all over it, and did not see a scrap of the old bonnet. How she mimics Young Spinks, things. Such carpets! — real Turkey; such (who has been lisping pretty things to her pier-glasses! - you could see your whole whenever he had an opportunity), till old length in them; and they had no gauze on Meek nearly tumbles out of his chair with the bright frames, either; such tables!-she laughter; and gives a practical imitation of wondered old Worsted was not afraid to eat how Miss Horsley sung, to the great delight off them; and as for the chairs, she could not of Mrs. Meek. And how she reckons up all trust herself to say how much they cost. the items of the entertainments gauges the "Really, now-really" (the old lady summed weakness of the lemonade enlarges on the up this account with), "it's quite astonish-scantiness of the sandwiches and biscuits ing to me how they have managed it." criticizes the performance of the band engaged by Mrs. Caper, which she verily believes was only one of those horrid common street-bands picked up for the occasion-and generally paints Mrs. Caper's entertainment in the dingiest colors. If you had heard all this as I have, and if you had any genius for stock-taking yourself, you would understand quiet young ladies like Miss Martha Meek, who take stock of their friends for home entertainment. If I sat three or four hours, the old lady would entertain me with histories from her stock-taking book; but then the worst of it is-and that makes me feel rather uncomfortable you cannot help having a misgiving that she is taking stock of you all the while. She has rubbed up her spectacles for the purpose, and, while her quick old tongue rattles on, her sharp old eyes are employed in taking an inventory. I always expect that when she next goes to see Mrs. Wellbred or It would be unjust, however, to the ladies Mrs. Worsted, while she is gathering fresh to suppose that they enjoy a monopoly of materials she will be telling them how old stock-taking. Though I am an old bachelor, Wagtail called on her the other day, and she was quite sorry for him, poor old man. His cont looked nearly out at elbows, and his shirt-collar was ragged, and his boots had been mended in two or three places, and his gloves were really quite disgraceful, and he put his hat on the ground, so that she should not notice it; but she did, and it was as shabby as possible. He used to be so very particular, that she is sure things must be wrong with him. It may be very well to hear such stock-takings of your neighbors, but one must confess that it mars the pleasure, if we feel disagreeably sensible that our own inventories are being made out at the same time, for the edification of other people. I am not a crusty, woman-hating one, thank Heaven. I do not think that the stock-taking of the softer sex is half so selfish as that of us male creatures. They do it partly because they have nothing else to do, and are driven to it for occupation. They follow it out because it furnishes materials for gossip, and they must have something to talk about; but we do it, I am afraid, with more sordid views. For instance, did n't I see Goldly, the other day, meet Copperfield in the street; and, knowing something about Goldly and Copperfield, did n't I stand up in the doorway, and take stock of their meeting? I remember the time before Godly went out to South America and made that lucky "spec." in hides and Though I have put Mrs. Ferrett forward as tallow, or something of that sort, when he a prominent instance of the sort of people who was glad to share Copperfield's dinner, and "take stock," the practice is not quite con- borrow a pound of Copperfield now and then, fined to old ladies like her. I know some and take advantage of Copperfield's spare bed young ones who are quite adepts at it. I and Copperfield's breakfast for a week together. don't care so much personally about the But there have been changes since then. They young ones doing it, because, of course, they had not met for many years, and in the mean would hardly trouble their heads about such time Goldly had grown rich, and Copperfield, an old fellow as I am; so I can look on and who never had much to spare, had grown listen without any uncomfortable sense of poorer. Do you think I did not notice how danger to myself. There is Miss Meek, now Goldly ran his eye down the seams of Coppershe is my type of young ladies who "take field's clothes, and to the toes of his boots? stock.' "To see her when she is out, you Do you suppose I do not understand the would not think she took notice of anything, question as to where Copperfield lived now? or that she was capable of making fun of and how he was getting on? Do you believe anybody. But she is a sly puss is Martha | I did not translate Goldly's "Well, good-bye, |