PIRATES IN THE MOUNTAINS 61 



thing like one hundred miles around and is said 

 to be the largest lake in the world at so high an al- 

 titude. In capturing the lake, Yellowstone 

 River, pirate thereby, captured all the streams 

 emptying into the lake. This made a new 

 geography lesson and an interesting pirate story. 

 The waters of Yellowstone Lake before capture 

 flowed through the Snake River to the Pacific, 

 but now they go down the Yellowstone-Missouri- 

 Mississippi to the Atlantic. 



A Chilean river on the Pacific slope of South 

 America worked headward and sawed through 

 the Continental Divide. It beheaded a stream 

 on the Atlantic slope and diverted its waters 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This nearly 

 caused war between the Argentine Republic and 

 Chili. The original Continental Divide was 

 the boundary line between these nations, and 

 this piece of piracy moved the boundary line 

 and threw these two powers into angry confusion. 

 After much searching and surveying the Conti- 

 nental Divide was found and a new boundary 

 agreed upon. But in all probability this, too, 

 will be moved, for rivers have never paid any 

 attention to a divide or a national boundary line. 



Thousands of hills have been entirely washed 

 away by rivers, others have been partly removed, 

 and many streams are to-day cutting away at 

 watersheds and mountains. In many states of 



