COL (Fr. for "

See also:

• NECK (O. Eng. hnecca; the word appears in many Teutonic languages; cf. Dutch ride, Ger. Nacken; in O. E. the common word was heals; cf. Ger. Hals)

neck,"

See also:

• LAT

Lat. collum)  , in physical geography, generally any marked depression upon a high and rugged water-parting over which passage is easy from one valley to another . Such is the Col de Balme between the Trient and Chamounix valleys, where the great inaccessible wall crowned with aiguilles running to the massif of Mt . Blanc is broken by a gentle down-ward curve with smooth upland slopes, over which a footpath gives easy passage . The col is usually formed by the head-waters of a stream eating backward and lowering the water-parting at the head of its valley . In early military operations, the march of an army was always over a col, which has at all times con-siderable commercial importance in relation to roads in high mountain regions .