The Lost Continent | Page 4

the
fate of the Philippines was even then presaged by these Chinese naval
officers.
Yes, for over two hundred years no man crossed 30d to 175d and lived
to tell his story--not until chance drew me across and back again, and
public opinion, revolting at last against the drastic regulations of our
long-dead forbears, demanded that my story be given to the world, and
that the narrow interdict which commanded peace, prosperity, and
happiness to halt at 30d and 175d be removed forever.
I am glad that it was given to me to be an instrument in the hands of
Providence for the uplifting of benighted Europe, and the amelioration
of the suffering, degradation, and abysmal ignorance in which I found
her.
I shall not live to see the complete regeneration of the savage hordes of
the Eastern Hemisphere--that is a work which will require many
generations, perhaps ages, so complete has been their reversion to
savagery; but I know that the work has been started, and I am proud of
the share in it which my generous countrymen have placed in my
hands.

The government already possesses a complete official report of my
adventures beyond thirty. In the narrative I purpose telling my story in
a less formal, and I hope, a more entertaining, style; though, being only
a naval officer and without claim to the slightest literary ability, I shall
most certainly fall far short of the possibilities which are inherent in my
subject. That I have passed through the most wondrous adventures that
have befallen a civilized man during the past two centuries encourages
me in the belief that, however ill the telling, the facts themselves will
command your interest to the final page.
Beyond thirty! Romance, adventure, strange peoples, fearsome
beasts--all the excitement and scurry of the lives of the twentieth
century ancients that have been denied us in these dull days of peace
and prosaic prosperity--all, all lay beyond thirty, the invisible barrier
between the stupid, commercial present and the carefree, barbarous
past.
What boy has not sighed for the good old days of wars, revolutions,
and riots; how I used to pore over the chronicles of those old days,
those dear old days, when workmen went armed to their labors; when
they fell upon one another with gun and bomb and dagger, and the
streets ran red with blood! Ah, but those were the times when life was
worth the living; when a man who went out by night knew not at which
dark corner a "footpad" might leap upon and slay him; when wild
beasts roamed the forest and the jungles, and there were savage men,
and countries yet unexplored.
Now, in all the Western Hemisphere dwells no man who may not find a
school house within walking distance of his home, or at least within
flying distance.
The wildest beast that roams our waste places lairs in the frozen north
or the frozen south within a government reserve, where the curious may
view him and feed him bread crusts from the hand with perfect
impunity.
But beyond thirty! And I have gone there, and come back; and now you
may go there, for no longer is it high treason, punishable by disgrace or

death, to cross 30d or 175d.
My name is Jefferson Turck. I am a lieutenant in the navy-- in the great
Pan-American navy, the only navy which now exists in all the world.
I was born in Arizona, in the United States of North America, in the
year of our Lord 2116. Therefore, I am twenty-one years old.
In early boyhood I tired of the teeming cities and overcrowded rural
districts of Arizona. Every generation of Turcks for over two centuries
has been represented in the navy. The navy called to me, as did the free,
wide, unpeopled spaces of the mighty oceans. And so I joined the navy,
coming up from the ranks, as we all must, learning our craft as we
advance. My promotion was rapid, for my family seems to inherit naval
lore. We are born officers, and I reserve to myself no special credit for
an early advancement in the service.
At twenty I found myself a lieutenant in command of the
aero-submarine Coldwater, of the SS-96 class. The Coldwater was one
of the first of the air and underwater craft which have been so greatly
improved since its launching, and was possessed of innumerable
weaknesses which, fortunately, have been eliminated in more recent
vessels of similar type.
Even when I took command, she was fit only for the junk pile; but the
world-old parsimony of government retained her in active service, and
sent two hundred men to sea in her, with myself, a mere boy, in
command of her, to patrol thirty from Iceland to the