Death by Exposure (6 page)

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14.

My feet slipped out from beneath me on the treacherous rocks, and I began sliding toward the edge. I cried out, but my voice was lost in the thunderous roar. Desperately I tried to dig in my heels, and my fingers grasped at the

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15.

The sun dipped into the ocean and its light was extin-guished. The final whistle blew, signalling the end of another day of labour. As the machinery fell silent, the workers abandoned their tasks and retireated to their homes. There, I stood, safe within the shadows. The only sounds were the wind and the waves though I could almost hear the quickening beat of my heart. Should I leave or enter the now-abandoned building?

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16.

He lowered his head and pawed at the ground. As I braced for his charge he turnad and fled along the path. I hesitated for a second, then followed as he led his harem into the mountains.

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The Earth is an amazingly large place. Maps and globes are just representations, scale models, of the real planet. When you look at most maps or globes, you'll notice there's a grid—a series of imaginary lines that go north and south and east and west. These lines are called latitude and longitude and are used to locate specific spots in the world. Here's how they work.

Latitude lines are horizontal lines that show how far something is north or south of the equator-the very middle of the Earth. The equator is identified as 0 degrees. Going away from the equator, either north or south, each 111 kilometres (69 miles) on average is a degree (each degree increases slightly from the equator to the poles because of the Earth's polar flattening). The very bottom of the Earth—the South Pole-is 90 degrees South, while the North Pole is 90 degrees North. Latitude lines are also called parallels because they never meet.

Toronto, for example, has an approximate latitude of 43 degrees North. This means that Toronto is north of the equator and almost halfway between the equator (0 degrees) and the North Pole (90 degrees North).

Longitude lines, or meridians, are the vertical lines that show how far something is east or west of an imaginary line drawn through Greenwich, England. By international agreement, Greenwich is designated as 0 degrees longitude. The Greenwich line is also known as the prime meridian. The entire world has been divided into 360 degrees of longitude-180
degrees going west and 180 degrees going east. Sometimes the degrees going west are marked with a minus sign (-). Unlike latitude lines, longitude lines do meet at both the North and South Poles where they all come together.

Toronto has an approximate longitude of 79 degrees West. This means that Toronto is west of Greenwich, England, and since 180 degrees is the completely opposite side of the world away from Greenwich, Toronto isn't quite half as far as the other side of the world from Greenwich.

Those are the basics of latitude and longitude. Now let's complicate things a bit. Degrees are usually very far apart. Remember that longitude lines get closer as they leave the prime meridian at Greenwich and actually meet at both poles. To find a very specific place each degree is further divided into minutes and seconds. Between each degree is 60 minutes and each minute is broken down into 60 seconds. It's important to understand that even though they are called minutes and seconds, these divisions have nothing to do with time.

Toronto is Canada's largest city, so it's a pretty big place and the exact latitude and longitude will vary depending on what part of the metropolis you calculate them from. For instance, exact latitude coordinates of, say, 43 degrees, 40 minutes, 12 seconds North, puts you in the vicinity of the central neighbourhoods of St. James Town/Cabbagetown. In short form this is written as 43:40:12 N. This spot would give us an exact longitude of 79 degrees, 22 minutes, 12 seconds West. In short form this is written as 79:22:12 W. With these coordinates anyone can exactly locate this neighbourhood of Toronto on a world map or globe even if no cities or towns are marked. With a global positioning system, or
GPS
, you could pinpoint your location to the very corner you're standing at or the bed you're lying on in your house.

We want to help the coroner in our story determine the latitude and longitude of each of the places depicted in the photographs found in this book. On page 51 you'll find a chart with the number of each photograph (1 to 16 in the order they appear in this book), a description of each photograph, the exact name of the place, and the province or territory that it's in. The latitude and longitude have been left blank.

In order to discover the actual latitude and longitude of each place, go to Natural Resources Canada's “Geographical Names of Canada” Web site at
www.geonames.nrcan.gc.ca
.
When you have the site up on your computer screen, click on English or French. On the next Web page go to “Querying Canadian Geographical Names” and click on “Query by Name.” When the next page pops up, go to “1. Key in a Canadian Geographical Place Name” and type in a place. For example, the first photograph in this book was taken on Princess Royal Island, so type in that place name. Next scroll down to the list of provinces and tick off the appropriate one. In this case that would be British Columbia. Then click on the “Submit Query” button below the province list. When the next page comes up, click on “Info” under the heading “Details.” And there you have it: the latitude and longitude of Princess Royal Island!

To start your next search (after writing down the latitude and longitude of Princess Royal Island), click back to the “Submit Query” page and look for the second place, Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve. In some instances, you may end up with more than one listing after you submit your query. If that happens, pick the first one in the list.

While you're at Natural Resources Canada's Web site, you might want to see what the latitude and longitude of your own town or city is. That way you'll know exactly where you are in the world. Readers in the United States can check out their latitudes and longitudes at the U.S. Geological Survey's “Geographical Names Information System” Web site at
http://geonames.usgs.gov
/gnishome.html
.
When the page pops up on your screen, click on “United States and Territories” and follow directions. There's all sorts of interesting stuff to discover on the U.S. Geological Survey's main site
(
www.usgs.gov
),
too. The same goes for Natural Resources Canada's main site at
www.nrcan.gc.ca
.

Once you've got all the latitudes and longitudes of the sixteen places, locate them by number on the map of Canada on page 50, beginning with Princess Royal Island, which is number 1. You'll notice that the map has a latitude and longitude grid. If you don't want to mark up your book, you might want to photocopy the map and chart.

People have been using codes, ciphers, signals, and secret languages to conceal messages for centuries. Just who came up with the first secret code is cloaked in mystery, but most historians think the ancient Egyptians are a good possibility. The builders of the Pyramids developed special secret hieroglyphic codes for religious purposes about 4,000 years ago. A little later other ancient civilizations such as the Babylonians, Assyrians, and Chaldeans in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) created their own codes to conceal things like valuable formulas for pottery glazes.

Since then all sorts of people, including Buddha, Julius Caesar, Mary, Queen of Scots, England's King Charles I, Benjamin Franklin, France's Queen Marie-Antoinette, American president Thomas Jefferson, and Napoleon, have employed secret writing to disguise everything from battle plans and treason to religion and romance. Spies have probably been around just as long as secret codes, but the Englishman Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth I's spymaster, headed up a legion of agents that's a direct ancestor of the modern era's U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (
CIA
), Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (
SIS
or M16, for whom James Bond supposedly works), the former Soviet Union's Committee
for State Security (KGB, now known as the Federal Security Service or
FSB
and the Foreign Intelligence Service or
SVR
), and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (
CSIS
).

Famous spies have included Benedict Arnold, who betrayed the Yankee colonists to the British during the American Revolution; Mata Hari, the Dutchwoman who worked for the Germans in World War I; and Kim Philby, the British agent who leaked secrets to the KGB in the 1940s and 1950s. In fiction and movies there are all kinds of spies, both serious and comical. Think of James Bond. Or how about Austin Powers and the Spy Kids?