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SCIOPTICON MANUAL. 109 THE YALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT. —The Valley of Jehosh- aphat was the favorite bury ing-place of the Jews from the earliest times; accordingly we find in it a number of remarkable tombs. The monolith of Zachariah is a cubical block of about twenty feet every way, and sur- mounted by a flattened pyramid of at least ten feet elevation. It is one solid mass hewn out of the moun- tain, the adjacent rock being cut away, so that it stands entirely detached; there is no known entrance. The tomb of St. James shows a fine front to the west. The cave extends forty or fifty feet back into the mountain. Some two hundred feet north of this is the tomb of Absalom. The entire height of this very striking "pil- lar" cannot be less than forty feet. Believing it to be Absalom's tomb, the natives throw stones against it, and spit at it as they pass by. Close to this monument, on the northeast, is the reputed tomb of Jehoshaphat. " THE DEAD SEA/' says Dr. Thomson, " without any reference to what others have said, I can testify to the following facts : The water is perfectly clear and trans- parent. The taste is bitter and salt, far beyond that of the ocean. It acts upon the tongue and mouth like alum, smarts in the eyes like camphor, produces a burn- ing, pricking sensation, and it stiffens the hair of the head much like pomatum. The water has a much greater specific gravity than the human body, and hence I did not sink lower than to the arms when standing perpendicularly in it. We saw no fish nor living animals in the water, though birds were flying over it unharmed. All of us noticed an unnatural gloom, not upon the sea only, but also over the whole plain below Jericho. It had the appearance of Indian summer in America, and like a vast funeral pall let