The sailor depicted in the illustration stated that he had since his boyhood been engaged in trading with a small vessel among some twenty little islands in the Pacific. He supplied the rough chart of which I have given a copy and explained that the lines from island to island represented the only routes that he ever adopted. He always started from island $A$ at the beginning of the season, and then visited every island once, and once only, finishing up his tour at the starting-point $A.$ But he always put off his visit to $C$ as long as possible, for trade reasons that I need not enter into. The puzzle is to discover his exact route, and this can be done with certainty. Take your pencil and, starting at $A,$ try to trace it out. If you write down the islands in the order in which you visit them — thus, for example, $A, I, O, L, G,$ etc. — you can at once see if you have visited an island twice or omitted any. Of course, the crossings of the lines must be ignored — that is, you must continue your route direct, and you are not allowed to switch off at a crossing and proceed in another direction. There is no trick of this kind in the puzzle. The sailor knew the best route. Can you find it?
Solutions: 1
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