78 BOOK OF A HUNDRED BEARS 



on the north, reach the Missouri and, through 

 nearly five thousand miles of wandering, dis- 

 charge their melted snows into the Gulf of Mexico. 



Green River, the principal tributary of the 

 Colorado of the West, breaking through the 

 southern barriers, finally loses itself in the Gulf 

 of California. 



On the west, the Snake, the great southern 

 tributary of the Columbia River, augmented by 

 countless streams, swells the giant flood that 

 overwhelms the great tides of the Pacific and makes 

 its way, by channels innumerable, to the western 

 ocean. 



At the very summit lies a tiny basin. Two Ocean 

 Pond, whose like is not elsewhere. Perhaps three 

 hundred yards long and fifty feet wide, from one 

 end it drains by the Snake into the Pacific and, at 

 the other, by the Missouri into the Atlantic. 



That is the true Continental Divide. All the 

 others are imitations. 



Here, alone, the vagrant drop, nioved by some 

 tiny draught of air, may find its destiny in the 

 ocean that washes the shores of Cathay, or, by 



