■2 24- LooMiS on South Carolina Birds. [October 



Saluda Valley — a deep, narrow gorge, rising on the farther side 

 to the crest of the Saluda Mountains proper, along which runs 

 the tortuous State line on a divide that a little farther on sepa- 

 rates waters tributary to the Mississippi and the Atlantic. On the 

 west and southwest Mather's Creek, an affluent of the South 

 Saluda, forms a boundary. To the south the main stream, after 

 its confluence with the creek, skirts the base of an outlying exten- 

 sion of the mountain. The whole eminence is about six miles 

 in length and from one to one and a half miles in width. 



The summit of CiBsar's Head is a narrow watershed, reaching 

 northwest to the North Carolina line near Jones's Gap, with 

 several lateral ridges branching oft' in the direction of the Middle 

 Saluda. These ridges, in turn, are cut up into numerous smaller 

 ones by hollows, each with its brook of clear water. The minor 

 ridges terminate in blufts and clifts. The intervening hollows 

 also end abruptly, the little rills being precipitated over walls of 

 rock. This whole region abounds in pellucid streamlets and springs 

 of cold water, one of the latter being far-famed as the 'cold 

 spring.' On the top of the lateral ridges there is much fairly 

 even ground — several hundred acres at least. 



The ascent to the hotel from the south side is made by means 

 of the CtEsar's Head Turnpike, which winds upward for about 

 six miles. The summit gained, the road pursues the main ridge, 

 finally crossing the Middle Saluda and joining the Jones's Gap 

 Turnpike, which follows the course of the stream from the coun- 

 try below, entering North Carolina through Jones's Gap. In 

 riding over this ridge road — a verdant arcade in the summer 

 season — the traveler does not realize that he is on the summit of 

 a mountain except at a single point where a ravine, leading up 

 from the Middle Saluda, cuts deep into the backbone cf the ridge, 

 opening a vista into the valley, and revealing the ranges beyond. 

 To the northward of Ciesar's Head mountains succeed moun- 

 tains as far as the eye can reach, but to the southward the land- 

 scape of the lower country is overlooked, presenting a widespread 

 panorama of woods and fields, fading away into the hazy blue 

 of the distant horizon. 



The name, Caesar's Head, has its origin in a fancied resem- 

 blance to a human face, in profile, of a crag (the Head) facing to 

 the southward on the highest point. Taljle Rock and Mt. Pin- 

 nacle stand out boldly to the southwest. The distance — air 



