“At last,” said the colonel gravely. “It has been a long journey, boys, but we have reached the point I sought.”
Cyril looked at him inquiringly; and Perry, who felt that he was expected to speak, said: “Yes; it’s very grand. How different to being in amongst the mountains!”
“Yes, boy; we can breathe out here. Did you notice the water in the last two streams we passed?”
“Yes; very beautiful with the overhanging trees, father.”
“Yes; but the way they ran?”
“No,” said Perry.
“Look yonder, then,” said the colonel, pointing to a little rivulet which leaped out from between two masses of rock. “Where is that going?”
“Into another stream, I suppose,” said Perry, “and that will run into another, and so on, till they all together form a big river, and run into the ocean.”
“Yes; but what ocean, my boy? Don’t you see that we have crossed the watershed? Till the last day or two, all the streams we passed have been going constantly west into the Pacific. Now we have passed through the mountains, and found the eastern slope, where all run down to make the vast rivers which flow into the Atlantic.”
“I should not have known,” said Perry.