HISTORICAL AND OTHERWISE 



77 



^l^apUv 4^ 



HISTORICAL ^^ OTHERWISE 



!HE North American Indians, with 

 their lofty imaginations and fine 

 sense of imagery, often gave a 

 nomenclature to natural objects 

 that the Caucasian has never 

 surpassed. To the Yellowstone 

 Park region they gave the title of the '' Summit 

 of the World." No one has been able to improve 

 on that. Compared to it the "Backbone of the 

 Continent" is vulgar and puerile. 



Simply as a watershed, it deserves the name. 

 Wandering through it, turning and retreating 

 upon itself in a sinuous line, is the Continental 

 Divide, from which streams flow to both great 

 oceans and to the Gulf of California. 



The Madison and Gallatin rivers, gathering 

 their floods on these plateaus and debouching 



