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have mentioned it at starting. It is this. We are told in two places in the 
book of Genesis of Abraham going to look at the V alley of the Jordan . once 
at Bethel, and again he goes out of Mamre to some other place on the road 
towards the cities of Sodom, and obtains a view of the cities. These two 
identical places remain at the present day ; the two places from which the 
Valley of the Jordan and the site of Sodom can be seen. A man residing in 
Hebron would have to go to identically the same spot to get the first sight of 
the Valley of the Cities of the Plain. It seems that is a forcible ground for 
believing that the level was the same as in the days of Abraham. 
Bev. Walter Mitchell. — I do not see that at all. I admit the fact Mr. 
Warington states, but I do not draw his conclusions. He does not show 
that the sea existed before the time of Abraham, nor meet the question I 
have supposed, of a change of the whole mass of the country, because there 
might have been a total depression of the country ; but you might have all 
that depression of the Dead Sea, and yet still Abraham might have looked 
over the mountains in the same direction, and towards the direction of where 
the plain sunk. I believe there has been a gradual sinking there, and that 
alone would account for the change. 
Captain Fishbourne. — I observe that Mr. Hopkins does not dwell upon the 
question of alterations of climate, except as to facts. He merely gives them, as 
far as they go, to prove other facts, to substantiate other facts. He is equally 
aware, as Mr. Mitchell, that various circumstances will alter the climate. Mr. 
Warington admits the fact that there has been an alteration of latitude— the 
facts he cannot deny. Now, going to Egypt, there is a very distinct altera- 
tion with respect to the Pyramids. They have been moved in their position, 
and astronomical observations distinctly mark a change. But for a still 
more recent instance, let us go to the other side of the world. In Philadel- 
phia the streets were laid out north, south, east, and west, but they are now 
changed, though it is only a very short period since the city of Philadelphia 
was founded. Again, with respect to the sites of churches, the sites of old 
churches were generally laid east and west, but now they are found to have 
changed ; and how are these things accounted for ? It is evident there is some 
cause, some power, which has produced these changes. What is the cause ? 
It may not be magnetism, as suggested by Mr. Hopkins ; there may be some- 
thing more. It has been suggested, just as the tides are acted on by the sun 
and moon, and because the water is mobile and the earth is not, that the tides 
oscillate backwards and forwards, whereas only portions of the earth oscillate. 
The whole earth moves, but in proportion and degree as it is mobile, and not 
all at the same rate. There may be chains of mountains not subject to the 
same forces, but which do not move until considerable pressure has taken 
place, and then move by convulsion — for instance, the Cordilleras were moved 
by one action. Geologists say this is a volcanic operation, but mechanical 
philosophers say, “ No, it is a mechanical operation of the attraction of the 
sun and moon.” We know the formation of the earth, the diameter at the 
Equator is twenty-six miles greater than the polar axis. Well, the sup- 
position is, that this mass is in motion, and that may be produced by the 
