CONTINENTAL DIVIDE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Continental divide

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/kˌɑntənˈɛntəl dɪvˈaɪd/ Listen

Continental divide

noun

The watershed of a continent (especially the watershed of North America formed by a series of mountain ridges extending from Alaska to Mexico).

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Etymology of 'Continental divide'

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"Continental divide" Quotes from Famous Books

... thought to have no knowledge or trustworthy tradition of the ancient inhabitants and are said to care nothing for the curious cemeteries among which they dwell, except as a source of revenue. Mr. A. L. Pinart states, however, that certain tribes on both sides of the continental divide have traditions pointing toward the ancient grave builders as their ancestors. There is probably no valid reason for assigning the remains of this region to a very high antiquity. The highest stage of culture here may have been either earlier or ...

— Ancient art of the province of Chiriqui, Colombia • William Henry Holmes

... the blue gashes of their canons the sun sank long shafts of light, and the glazed laps of their snow-fields shone separate and white upon their lofty vastness, like handkerchiefs laid out to dry. Opposite, above the valley, rose that other range, the Continental Divide, not sharp, but long and ample. It was bare in some high places, and below these it stretched everywhere, high and low, in brown and yellow parks, or in purple miles of pine a world of serene undulations, a great ...

— The Jimmyjohn Boss and Other Stories • Owen Wister

... degree of comfort the trail of the early explorers. If one should then follow the Jefferson Fork of the great river up to its last narrowing, one would reach the country of Cam-e-ah-wit. Here is the crest of the Continental Divide, where it sweeps up from the south, after walling in, as if in a vast cup, the three main sources of the great river. Much of that valley country is in fertile farms today. Lewis and Clark passed within twelve miles of Alder ...

— The Magnificent Adventure - Being the Story of the World's Greatest Exploration and - the Romance of a Very Gallant Gentleman • Emerson Hough

Words linked to "Continental divide" : watershed, water parting, divide, Great Divide, North America