capable of worthily interpreting the masterpieces
of Haydn, Mozart, Rossini, and Meyerbeer. The
Mormons have a decided taste for music. Public
balls are also given at Social Hall. The religion
of the Latter-Day Saints is anything but melancholy.
Brigham Young himself is still one of
the best dancers in the place.

The Salt Lake is the greatest natural curiosity.
Baron Lahoutan, in 1689, first acquainted the
world with its existence. The circumference of
this American Caspian Sea is not much less than
three hundred miles. Its average depth is
scarcely twenty feet, though in certain places
it is more than fifty,—shallow upon the whole for
so large an expanse of water. A small steamer
and several smacks already navigate this sea of
the desert. In the middle of the lake, several
islands and islets rise from its surface. They
serve as a retreat for myriads of pelicans, gulls,
ducks, and other aquatic birds. The largest is
sixteen miles long by five broad; it rises to an
altitude of more than three thousand feet above
the level of the lake. Cattle are bred upon
it. The most picturesque is Castle Island, an
immense rock standing on a basement of
verdure, and whose fantastic outlines resemble
those of a ruin. From its summit you enjoy a
splendid view.

The waters of the lake are the most concentrated
natural brine in the world. Their density
is such that the human body will not sink in
them; neither fish nor shell-fish can live in them.
The Mormons generally extract, by evaporation,
a trifle more than one gallon of salt from three
gallons of water. But the density of the water
varies annually, according to the quantity of
snow and rain which falls in the neighbourhood,
and which the rivers discharge into the Salt
Lake. Incessantly fed by the waters of Lake
Timpanogos (now called Lake Utah), it
resembles the Caspian Sea in having no
communication with the ocean, and in losing, by
evaporation only, all the water it receives.

Lake Utah is thirty miles long, by fifteen
wide. Its depth varies from twelve to twenty
feet. Higher than the Salt Lake, it discharges
itself into the latter by the Jordan: a small river
which is not navigable, but whose banks will one
day be covered with mills. Its waters are
particularly sweet and clear, and abound in perch
and pike, besides trout with yellow flesh and of
exquisite flavour, which weigh as much as thirty
pounds each. At certain points, the grand valley
of Utah resembles the scenery of Switzerland.

The Church of the Latter-Day Saints has
three sacred books; the Bible, the Book of Mormon,
and the Book of Doctrines and Covenants.
But Joseph Smith made a new "inspired" translation
(not yet published) of the whole Old and
New Testament, which is to throw bright light
on obscure passages, and put all other versions
into the shade. There also is a celebrated revelation,
known as the Word of Wisdom, which
forms a hygienic code. It says, "Liquors and
strong drinks are not intended to be taken
internally, but to be used as outward lotions.
Similarly, tobacco is not good at all for men; it
is a plant capable of curing bruises and sick
animals, but its use requires great prudence and
skill." The same revelation proscribes warm
drinks, and lays down other precepts on the
moderate use of meat and divers cereal grains.
It seems to prognosticate a more complete law,
which will formally enforce a strictly vegetable
diet. But many of the prophet's revelations
are still kept back in dark closets, to be
produced from their hiding-places as time and
opportunity shall serve.

Brother Bertrand boldly justifies the practice
of polygamy, or, as he phrases it, patriarchal
marriage. But polygamy, with the Mormons, is
not a mere tenet, it is a revelation, and that
puts an end to the matter. It appears that
on the 29th of April, 1852, the revelation
made to Joseph Smith respecting polygamy—
hitherto kept back in reserve—was proclaimed
and adopted in a special Conference, as the law
of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints. Of all
the writings which the saints have published on
the important subject of a plurality of wives,
the report of this Conference, thinks Brother
Bertrand, renders the greatest service in
appreciating the real character of the institution. We
think so too. The meeting opened with a
wonderful improvisation by the transcendent Orson
Pratt—the great orator, the able theologian,
the learned engineer. Orson began by proving
the constitutional legality of polygamy by the
Article of the Federal Law, which proclaims
"the freedom of religious worship." This
must have been done with the kindest intentions;
because the very same argument would
prove the legality of polygamy in Great Britain
and Ireland. Orson then launched out
into the doctrine of the pre-existence of souls.
"Souls," said Orson, " are not contemporary
with bodies. It is unreasonable to believe that
the Deity creates a new soul every time that a
new tabernacle comes into the world; for then,
the creation would not have been completed in
six days; it would be going on still, and the
Deity would have nothing else to do than to
create spirits, at the rate of a billion per century,
at least. We admit that the spirit is much
older than its tabernacle. The spirit now living
in every individual is several thousand years
old. Solomon says that when the body returns
to dust, the spirit returns to God. It is evident
that, if the spirit had never been in heaven, it
could not return there. I cannot return to California,
because I have never been there. In the
inspired translation which Joseph (Smith) made
of Genesis, it is proved that the spirits of all
men and of all women existed before the earthly
creation of Adam and Eve. God is the father
of our spirits.

"It was promised to Abraham that his seed
should be as numerous as the sands of the sea.
But if the earth should last eight thousand
years longer, ten sacks of sand would contain
more grains than the whole human population
since the creation. If man, therefore, ceased
to multiply, what would become of the promise
made to Abraham? The priesthood of the