ON THE TRAIL OF JIM GESEEK 



WHEN Balboa looked for the first time upon this 

 Pacific Ocean he stole its secret and robbed it of 

 a certain charm. No other could ever be the first 

 white man to look upon its shining waters. It seems 

 like a childish thing, this craving for priority, and yet 

 nearly all of us have it and in some of us it amounts to 

 almost a mania. Men eagerly risk their lives endeav- 

 oring to reach the South Pole-, they endure untold hard- 

 ships to penetrate the heart of Africa, or to trace out 

 the course of the Amazon ; even now they are awaiting 

 the signal to attempt the flight across the Atlantic. 

 Usually they are advertised as doing these things in 

 the cause of science, to add to the sum total of human 

 knowledge. It adds dignity to the venture and raises 

 them to the order of martyrs when they die in the at- 

 tempt .; but it's mostly a bluff; they are simply mad with 

 the desire to be first. It is simply amazing to see how 

 even a distant approach to this "first sight" will thrill 

 one. 



So it was that we awoke all a-tingle in the morning 

 on that little island in Saganaga. Not because we 

 were the first white men who had ever seen it. Trap- 

 pers and courieurs des bois had traveled it for years, 

 the boundary crew had surveyed it, a few hardy sum- 

 mer tourists had crossed it, a few white women had 

 been there. Our claim was very remote and probably 

 without foundation, but we thought that no other 

 white children had been there. Slight as the honor 

 was and doubtful as was our claim to even that, it gave 



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