BOOK OF MORMON LANDS.[1]  
The location of many cities mentioned in the Book of Mormon, and the districts of Nephite lands that would correspond to departments and provinces in the political nomenclature of modern times, may not now be definitely fixed upon. This circumstance arises largely out of the fact that the Nephite historians have said nothing explicitly as to the extent of those mighty changes which were wrought in the form of Book of Mormon countries by the awful convulsions of nature at the time of Messiah's crucifixion. That the changes were considerable no one can question; for while certain allowances must always be made for language used in describing such events as then took place, the very definite statements of the Book of Mormon with reference to these events leave no room for doubt as to the great transformations wrought in the physical aspects of the land by those great cataclysms. Three different writers make mention of the physical changes wrought at Messiah's crucifixion, two prophetically, and one gives two descriptions of the physical changes that took place through the convulsions of nature. I remark, in passing, that it must be remembered that the prophetic descriptions must be accounted as real as the historical descriptions; for as the prophets saw it, so indeed it came to pass. The first Nephi, in his description of the great catacylsms, says:
 
I saw a mist of darkness on the face of the land of promise; and I saw lightnings, and I heard thunderings, and earthquakes, and all manner of tumultuous noises; and I saw the earth and the rocks, that they rent; and I saw mountains tumbling into pieces; and I saw the plains of the earth, that they were broken up; and I saw many cities that they were sunk; and I saw many that they were burned with fire; and I saw many that did tumble to the earth, because of the quaking thereof.[2]
 
The following is the prophet Samuel's description of the physical changes in the western hemisphere at the crucifixion of Christ:
 
Behold, in that day that he shall suffer death, the sun shall be darkened and refuse to give his light unto you; and also the moon and the stars; and there shall be no light upon the face of this land, even from the time that he shall suffer death, for the space of three days, to the time that he shall rise again from the dead. Yea, at the time that he shall yield up the ghost there shall be thunderings and lightnings for the space of many hours, and the earth shall shake and tremble; and the rocks which are upon the face of this earth, which are both above the earth [surface] and beneath, which ye know at this time are solid, or the more part of it is one solid mass, shall be broken up; yea, they shall be rent in twain, and shall ever after be found in seams and in cracks, and in broken fragments upon the face of the whole earth, yea, both above the earth and beneath. And behold, there shall be great tempests, and there shall be many mountains laid low, like unto a valley, and there shall be many places which are now called valleys which shall become mountains, whose height is great. And many highways shall be broken up, and many cities shall become desolate. * * * And behold, thus hath the angel spoken unto me; for he said unto me that there should be thunderings and lightnings for the space of many hours. And he said unto me that while the thunder and the lightning lasted, and the tempests, that these things should be, and that darkness should cover the face of the whole earth for the space of three days.[3]
 
Mormon's abridged description of the great cataclysms, after they had occurred, taken from the book of III Nephi, is as follows:
 
And it came to pass in the thirty and fourth year, in the first month, on the fourth day of the month, there arose a great storm, such an one as never had been known in all the land. And there was also a great and terrible tempest; and there was terrible thunder, insomuch that it did shake the whole earth as if it was about to divide asunder. * * * And the city of Zarahemla did take fire. And the city of Moroni did sink into the depths of the sea, and the inhabitants thereof were drowned. And the earth was carried up upon the city of Moronihah that in the place of the city there became a great mountain. And there was a great and terrible destruction in the land southward. But behold, there was a more great and terrible destruction in the land northward; for behold, the whole face of the land was changed, because of the tempest and the whirlwinds, and the thunderings and the lightnings, and the exceeding great quaking of the whole earth; and the highways were broken up, and the level roads were spoiled, and many smooth places became rough. And many great and notable cities were sunk, and many were burned, and many were shaken till the buildings thereof had fallen to the earth, and the inhabitants thereof were slain, and the places were left desolate. And there were some cities which remained; but the damage thereof was exceeding great, and there were many in them who were slain. * * * And thus the face of the whole earth became deformed, because of the tempests, and the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the quaking of the earth. And behold, the rocks were rent in twain; they were broken up upon the face of the whole earth, insomuch that they were found in broken fragments, and in seams and in cracks, upon all the face of the land.[4]
 
The second description of these truly awful occurrences in III Nephi is one that is attributed to the voice of God heard throughout the land by the survivors of that dreadful time:
 
And it came to pass that there was a voice heard among all the inhabitants of the earth, upon all the face of this land, crying: Wo, wo, wo unto this people; wo unto the inhabitants of the whole earth except they shall repent; for the devil laugheth, and his angels rejoice, because of the slain of the fair sons and daughters of my people; and it is because of their iniquity and abominations that they are fallen! Behold, that great city of Zarahemla have I burned with fire, and the inhabitants thereof. And behold, that great city of Moroni have I caused to be sunk in the depths of the sea, and the inhabitants thereof to be drowned. And behold, that great city Moronihah have I covered with earth, and the inhabitants thereof, to hide their iniquities and their abominations from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints shall not come any more unto me against them. And behold, the city of Gilgal have I caused to be sunk, and the inhabitants thereof to be buried up in the depths of the earth; yea, and the city of Onihah and the inhabitants thereof, and the city of Mocum and the inhabitants thereof, and the city of Jerusalem and the inhabitants thereof, and waters have I caused to come up in the stead thereof, to hide their wickedness and abominations from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints shall not come up any more unto me against them. And behold, the city of Gadiandi, and the city of Gadiomnah, and the city of Jacob, and the city of Gimgimno, all these have I caused to be sunk, and made hills and valleys in the places thereof; and the inhabitants thereof have I buried up in the depths of the earth, to hide their wickedness and abominations from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints should not come up any more unto me against them. * * * And many great destructions have I caused to come upon this land, and upon this people, because of their wickedness and their abominations.[5]
 
But notwithstanding all that is said in these passages about the mighty changes which took place in the land, nothing is set down that helps us to determine definitely the nature of the physical changes as affecting Nephite lands. I believe, however, those changes were considerable; enough at least to render worthless, except in a very general way, the conjectures sometimes made respecting Nephite lands and cities.
 
I am aware that the science of geology, while clearly granting the instability of our earth's crust, quite generally insists that the uplifting of continents and mountain ranges from the ocean's bed, and the subsidence of islands and continents into the ocean bottom is accomplished so slowly that long geological periods are required for the changes effected; and that the periods of time are so great that it is useless to measure them in time of which years shall be regarded as units.[6] But notwithstanding the very sound reasons, in the main, which are advanced for the slowness of this work, there is evidence of the fact, and also respectable authority for it, that sometimes very great changes of wide extent are made quite suddenly.
 
Sir Charles Lyell says:
 
While these proofs of continental elevation and subsidence, by slow and insensible movements, have been recently brought to light, the evidence has been daily strengthened of continued changes of level effected by violent convulsions in countries where earthquakes are frequent. There the rocks are rent from time to time, and heaved up or thrown down several feet at once, and disturbed in such a manner, that the original position of strata may, in the course of centuries, be modified to any amount.[7]
 
Our modern world is fast coming to recognize Plato's story of the subsidence of the island-continent of Atlantis as something more than a fable. The story of that so-called island which by the Egyptian priest who related the tradition to Solon was represented as larger than "Lybia and Asia put together," is told in Plato's Timaeus,[8] as follows:
 
In those days the Atlantic was navigable; and there was an island situated in front of the straits which you call the columns of Heracles; the island was larger than Lybia and Asia put together, and was the way to other islands, and from the islands you might pass through the whole of the opposite continent which surrounded the true ocean; for this sea which is within the straits of Heracles is only a harbor, having a narrow entrance, but the other is a real sea, and the surrounding land may be most truly called a continent.[9]
 
Plato represents that in this land there was a great and wonderful empire which had dominion over the whole island and its armies attempted to subjugate Egypt and Europe to its authority. In this conflict the very ancient Greeks won the applause of Europe and Egypt by withstanding well nigh alone the aggressions of the Atlantic empire. The Greeks are represented as having defeated and triumphed over the invaders, and now Plato:
 
But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of rain all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared, and was sunk beneath the sea. And that is the reason why the sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there is such a quantity of shallow mud in the way; and this was caused by the subsidence of the island.[10]
 
On the acceptance of Plato's story of Atlantis, both by ancient and modern writers, P. De Roo, in his History of America Before Columbus, has an interesting chapter, from which I quote the following:
 
Not to speak of other ancient authors to whom we shall refer in the sequel, we may remark that the Jewish writer Philo (20 B. C.—54 A. D.), and the Platonist Crantor, were inclined to admit the literal interpretation of Plato's Atlantidic description. Tertullian (second century A. D.) and Arnobius (fourth century A. D.) agreed with the pagan savant Ammianus of Plato's island, Atlantis; and we have noticed that Cosmas Indicopleustes believed our continent [America] to be the cradle of the human race. It would not be difficult to find several authors of the first Christian centuries and of the middle ages who relied on Plato's narrative in their prophecies of discoveries in the mysterious west, and Christopher Columbus himself was undoubtedly encouraged by his belief in the objective truth of Plato's Timaeus and Critias; but after our continent was again discovered at the end of the fifteenth century, almost every European scientist accepted the literal interpretation of the Athenian philosopher's description of countries in and beyond the Atlantic Ocean.[11]
 
This passage is followed by a number of pages on the same subject, and many authorities are quoted in the margin, to which I commend the reader.
 
Elisee Reclus, author of The Earth, a Descriptive History of the Phenomena of the Life of the Globe, and one of the highest authorities on physical geography, in speaking of an isthmus which once connected "the few clumps of mountains which formed, as it were, the rudiments of our Europe," with the American coast, also says:
 
This isthmus was the Atlantis, and the traditions which Plato speaks of about this vanished land were perhaps based upon authentic testimony. It is possible that man may have witnessed the submergence of this ancient continent, and that the Gunches of the Canary Islands were the direct descendants of the earliest inhabitants of this primeval land.[12]
 
I also commend to the reader a recent volume on the subject by Ignatius Donnelly, published by Harpers, 1898, under the title Atlantis, and while I do not accept all the theories advanced by the author with reference to Atlantis, I recognize the fact that he has collected a great amount of evidence tending to establish the existence and the subsidence of Plato's island-continent. Of course, for many ages Plato's story has been regarded as a fable, but, as Donnelly remarks, "there is an unbelief which grows out of ignorance, as well as a skepticism which is born of intelligence," and then he adds:
 
For a thousand years it was believed that the legends of the buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were myths: they were spoken of as "the fabulous cities." For a thousand years the educated world did not credit the accounts given by Herodotus of the wonders of the ancient civilizations of the Nile and the Chaldae. He was called "the father of liars." Even Plutarch sneered at him. Now, in the language of Frederick Schlegal, "the deeper and more comprehensive the researches of the moderns have been, the more their regard and esteem for Herodotus has increased." Buckle says, "His minute information about Egypt and Asia Minor is admitted by all geographers." There was a time when the expedition sent out by Pharaoh Necho to circumnavigate Africa was doubted, because the sun was north of them; this circumstance, which then aroused suspicion, now proves to us that the Egyptian navigators had really passed the equator, and anticipated by 2,100 years Vasquez de Gama in his discovery of the Cape of Good Hope.[13]
 
It is not, however, upon the probability of the elevation and subsidence of this island-continent that I depend for support of my views with reference to the changes being considerable that have taken place in the western continents in comparatively modern times. There is enough evidence that is matter of record within recent years to establish the possibility of such changes having taken place. Le Conte, in his Compendium of Geology, says:
 
But great earthquakes are oftener associated with bodily movements of extensive areas of earth-crust. Thus, for example, in 1835, after a severe earthquake on the western coast of South America............