FAUNA OF THE SOUTHERN ALLEGHANIES. 399 
80 superior in scenery to that watering place, will no doubt 
be some day recognized by the citizens of our northern 
cities. 
According to the measurement given by Prof. Kerr, in 
his first report on the progress of the Geological Survey 
of the State, the elevation of this valley is twenty-five 
hundred feet above the sea. The highest point in the great 
valley of the Alleghanies, on the line of the Virginia and 
Tennessee Railroad in south-west Virginia, is nineteen hun- 
dred feet, according to the railroad surveys. The Black 
Mountains rise from the Upper French Broad Valley to six 
thousand seven hundred and forty feet. On the south, three 
ranges separate it from the upper country of South Carolina, 
the southern escarpment of each of which presents a much 
greater descent than the northern. 
As might have been expected, the products of this valley 
approximate, in some respects, those of the North. It is the 
source of supply for the immediately adjoining southern 
regions, of apples, potatoes, and cabbages that will head. In 
its fauna it partakes of a few northern traits. I observed 
the following birds there in September, so that I cannot be 
sure that they breed there, or that they had not descended 
from the surrounding mountains: Mniotilta varia, Parula 
Americana, Dendreca virens, D. carulescens, D. maculosa, 
Setophaga ruticilla. The reptile fauna presented on the 
other hand a marked peculiarity, and I write the present 
notice to call attention to it. The lizard Oligosoma laterale 
Say, was common; the salamander Spelerpes guttolineatus 
was excessively abundant, and a single example of Ambly- 
stoma talpoideum was found there under a log, during my 
residence of a week. These three species have been looked 
upon as representing our extreme southern Reptile fauna. 
They have not been found hitherto north of the low country 
of the Gulf States, and its prolongation up the low valley of 
the Mississippi. The Amblystoma only, of the three, has 
occurred near Cairo, Ill. (Mus. Smithsonian). The Speler- 
