Tools of

Navigation
A Kid’s Guide to the History & Science of Finding Your Way

15
Explore Build
the history of your very own
navigation from working compasses,
astrolabes to topo map, astrolabes
satellites and more

Hands-On
Learn Activities Meet
to find your the people
way using only whose inventions
the sun and stars changed how we
view the world

Rachel Dickinson
 Tools of

Navigation
A Kid’s Guide to the History & Science of Finding Your Way

15
Hands-On
Activities

Rachel Dickinson
 Nomad Press
A division of Nomad Communications
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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ISBN: 0-9771294-3-8
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Photo Credits
Pg. 16: Tower: Catherine Yen; Pg. 27: Spices: www.davestravelcorner.com/photos/Peru/; Pg. 29: Grail:
www.oraculartree.com/grail.html; Pg. 30: MarcoPolo: www.askasia.org; Pg. 45: Ptolemy map:
www.mlahanas.de; Pg. 47: Columbus: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu.htm; Pg. 48: Poets:
www.gutenberg.org/; Pg. 50: French Astrolabe Richard Paselk, Humboldt State University, Pg 55: Ekertequal.
www.geography.ccsu.edu/; Pg. 58: Cook: www.plantexplorers.com; Pg. 63: Titanic Sinking: www.materials.
unsw.edu.au; Pg. 68: Palmyra-jungle: www.uscg.mil/d14/units/kukui/Palmyra.htm; Pg. 68: Eureka Dunes.tif:
Lee Bennett www.perrochon.com/photo/Dunes/; Pg. 70: Buck Farm Canyon:
www.wedgie.org/~jbrown/canyon/amy/, Cape_cod: www.terc.edu, Panam: Image Courtesy SRTM Team
NASA/JPL/NIMA http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov; Pg. 71: Volcano: www.familycrisp.com/montserrat.htm;
Pg. 72: Dewey Mountain.: http://www.saranaclake.com/gallery.shtml - Courtesy of Dave Freeman and the
Saranac Lake Area Chamber of Commerce; Pg. 75: www.archives.gov/; Pg. 75 Oregon trail:
www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/histus.html#later.html—Line of Original Emigration to the Pacific Northwest
Commonly Known as the Old Oregon Trail from The Ox Team or the Old Oregon Trail 1852–1906 by Ezra
Meeker. Fourth Edition 1907.; Pg. 76: Independence Rock: www.canvocta.org/routes/; Pg. 81: Great falls:
http://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/; Pg. 88: Colorado River: http://nathancheng.com/grandcanyon/,
Cliffs, Grand Canyon, Colorado: www.teridanielsbooks.com; Pg. 92: Everest.: www.angelfire.com; Pg. 95: Theb:
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce; Pg. 96: Fram.:
www.sverdrup2000.org/; Pg. 97: Proposedroutemap: http://ku-prism.org; Pg. 98: The PEARY: The National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce; Pg. 98: Peary2. www.americaslibrary.
gov/; Pg. 102: Magnorp: http://geo.phys.uit.no/articl/veientil.html; Pg. 103: Shackleton—Emily Slatten
www.Framheim.com, Endurance, http://home.ict.nl/~ephilipp/stamps/endurance/endurance.html; Pg. 110:
Foucault: www-obs.cnrs-mrs.fr; Pg. 110: Marietta Gyro: http://physics.kenyon.edu , Mobile Launcher:Rocket
image—Richard d. Maurer http://www.constable.ca/v2.htm, Technology in War—Kenneth Macksey; Pg. 113:
V207: www.zamandayolculuk.com/cetinbal/V2RROCKET.htm; Sputnik asm:
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database; Pg. 114: Moonflag: www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/alsj-
usflag.html; Pg. 117: UTM world.1.5: www.farmworks.com/support/utmmaps.html; Pg. 121: 1966 Texaco Texas
Legend: www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/county_outline.html; Pg. 122: 0000019b: Library of congress
 Contents
Introduction
Navigation as Art and Science .......................................................................................................1

Chapter One
Ice Age Navigators:
From the Bering Strait to the Americas . .......................................................................................3

Chapter Two
Ancient Navigators:
Braving the Sea Without a Compass .............................................................................................9

Chapter Three
The World Expands:
The Age of European Exploration ...............................................................................................33

Chapter Four
Land Exploration:
Jungle, Mountain, and Desert Terrain, and the Mapping of the American West .................67

Chapter Five
The New Age of Exploration:
Navigation from Pole to Pole as the First Extreme Sport . .......................................................85

Chapter Six
Twentieth Century Navigation:
Aeronautical Navigation and the GPS Revolution .................................................................105

Chapter Seven
Navigation in Action:
How to Find Your Way Using Maps, Compasses, and GPS .................................................. 119
 Activities
Chapter 1
Learn the Constellations and Make a Sky Chart .........................................................................14

Chapter 3
Make Your Own Compass ..............................................................................................................36
Understanding Latitude . ................................................................................................................44
Make a Simple Astrolabe ................................................................................................................52
Measure Your Local Time ...............................................................................................................64
Circumnavigate the Globe ..............................................................................................................66

Chapter 4
Improve Your Sense of Direction ...................................................................................................72
Map the School Grounds ................................................................................................................82

Chapter 7
Using a Road Map .........................................................................................................................124
Match Contour Maps to Hill Profiles ..........................................................................................132
Understanding Contour Lines .....................................................................................................133
Traveling by Compass ...................................................................................................................140
Working With a Topographic Map ..............................................................................................144
Go on a Treasure Hunt ..................................................................................................................147
Going on a Treasure Hunt with GPS ...........................................................................................150

Dedication
To my husband, Tim Gallagher, and my children, Railey, Clara, Jack, and Gwendolyn.

Acknowledgments
A special thank you to Lauri Berkenkamp, my editor at Nomad Press.
 Introduction
Navigation as Art and Science

N avigation is the art and science of maneuvering safely and efficiently

from one point to another. The word navigation comes from the Latin
navis, which means boat, and agire,
which means guide, so traditionally navigation
referred to the ability to guide ships from
navigate—
from the Latin navis, which means boat,
and agire, meaning to guide.
one place to another. Today we use the term
navigate whenever anyone wants or needs to
go anywhere by any means. A hiker navigates through the woods. A navigator
in an airplane gets us from one place to the next by way of the sky. A kayaker
navigates his way through the mangrove swamp. Your mother navigates to the
store when she drives to town to buy groceries. Anytime anyone needs to get
from one point to another point, they are navigating.
In this book we’re going to look at the history and practice of navigation starting
way back in time. In the first chapter we’ll look at examples of how and why people
THE SILK ROAD
rt
many, many thousands of years
Rome
e se
EUROPE
Samarkand
ASIA Tu r p a n A n x i G o b
i D
ago made their way from one
Mediterranean Sea X i’an
Baghdad
Him
place to another—whether by
a la y a s
CHINA
ARABIA INDIA sailing from one island to another
Re
d

South
or because they were chasing
Se

AFRICA Arabian China

a

Bay of
Sea Sea
Bengal

INDIAN OCEAN mammoths across a land bridge

Land routes Equator that linked two continents.
Sea routes
Ancient trade routes.

 N

Tools of Navigation W E

Then we’ll look at some of the earliest trade routes—like the Spice Route between
India and Egypt, the trade routes across the Mediterranean Sea, and the Silk Road
that linked China to Europe. How did merchants know how to get where they
wanted to go? Was it dangerous? Were they traveling by land or by sea? We’ll
answer these questions and take a closer look at Polynesian navigation of Oceania,
and the remarkable Marco Polo and his travels.
Some key technological advances were necessary before maritime explorers
could open up the wonders of the world for the rest of us. We’ll develop a working
understanding of several nautical instruments like the sounding line, the astrolabe,
the sextant, the compass, and the chronometer. Then we’ll learn how understanding
and being able to measure latitude and longitude opened up exploration on the
seas. We’ll take a look at nautical charts and maps as well as Viking navigation,
Gustavas Mercator, Magellan, Columbus, John Harrison, and Captain Cook.
After a short lesson in basic geography, which often determines why people
choose to settle in one area over another, we’ll discover the American West of
the early 1800s, the explorations of Lewis and Clark, and subsequent efforts to
open up the country to settlement. We’ll take a trip through the Grand Canyon
with John Wesley Powell, wander through the jungles of Africa with David
Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley, climb the world’s highest peak with
Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, and explore the Arctic and Antarctic with
Amundsen, Peary, Scott, and Shackleton.
The twentieth century brings about aeronautical navigation and the race for
space. At the same time, the development of the Global Positioning System (GPS)
has made the world seem a little smaller. We’ll look at these space-age developments
and try to get a basic understanding of how these technologies work.
Finally, you’ll learn how to put some navigational skills to work, like how to
use a basic orienteering compass and read topographic and road maps. You’ll
actually learn how to read maps and answer questions like: What do all those
little squiggly lines mean on a topographic map? Then it’s time to head outside
and put your newfound knowledge to work.


 Ice Age Navigators
From the Bering Strait to the Americas

T ry to imagine how North America looked

20,000 years ago. Huge glaciers several
miles thick covered all of the northern
part of the continent and fingers of ice dipped
far south of the Great Lakes. The sea level was Learn how climate and
almost 400 feet lower than it is today because geography influenced
seawater became trapped in the great ice sheets. migration
Where not covered with ice, vast expanses of the
Explore the possible
current continental shelf were exposed. routes from Asia to
Scientists have determined that the glaciers North America
and vast ice sheets that covered much of North
Find out why people
America for thousands of years began melting migrate from one
and receding about 18,000 years ago and by 12,000 place to another
years ago had retreated to the northern
part of the continent. This opened what’s
known as the Bering Strait land bridge
that connected the continents of North
America and Asia, creating a possible
migration corridor between continents
for people and animals.

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Tools of Navigation W E

S
Ice Age
St arts Toda
y

There is no evidence of humans living in North

What two continents did the Bering Strait land bridge connect?

America prior to 11,500 years ago. Artifacts like Winter We

paintings and etchings in caves, stone tools, and
at her Appro
Experts
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35,000 years ago alongside animals like cave

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and rhinos. The question is—where did the first people in hendre in hendre

in North America come from and how did they get here? Archeologists
have been trying to piece together that puzzle for almost a century.
In the 1930s archaeologists working near Clovis, New Mexico, uncovered the
remains of mastodons with stone projectiles (spear points) mixed in with the
bones, indicating the animals had been killed on that spot. These projectiles,

Food During the Ice Age

Try to imagine stalking and then trying to kill an animal as big as an elephant
using a stick with a stone point lashed to the end. Mammoths and mastodons
were roaming North America during the last Ice Age and were an attractive
food source for early people—one animal could feed many
people until the meat spoiled (remember, there were
no refrigerators in those days). A common hunting
technique used was for a group of hunters to drive an
old, injured, or very young animal into a bog or swamp
and spear it to death. This could be very dangerous
because the hunters had to be close to the trapped
animal. Archeologists are trying to figure out if these
hunters caused the extinction of mastadons.

Words to know
mastodon: extinct plant-eating animal that resembled modern elphants. They were furry
and about 9 feet tall, with tusks over 15 feet long.
Clovis points: spear points with extremely fine, sharp points found near Clovis, New Mexico.

 N

W E Chapter One: Ice Age Navigators

S

which were stone points that would have

been fixed to the ends of sticks to be used
as spears, became known as Clovis points
(named after the place where they were first
found). Clovis points were distinctive because
the stone (usually flint or chert) was fashioned
in a very specific way to create extremely fine,
Clovis points. sharp edges. In the succeeding decades, more and
more Clovis points were found around North America, but oddly, no human
remains were ever associated with these finds. ammo
What became known as the Clovis-First Theory—meaning m
the people who t

hs
used Clovis points came to America first—says that when the land bridge opened
at the Bering Strait about 12,000 years ago, some Asian people made their way

a nd
do s
n
across the 55 miles that separates the Asian and the North American continents.
Why would these early people make this journey? Because they were nomadic,
big-game hunters who were following mastodons and mammoths that were
m
ast o
also traveling along the land bridge, possibly in search of food.
This land bridge was not really like what we think of as a bridge. It was
55 miles across and up to 1,000 miles wide at points. Look at a modern-day
map and you’ll see just how close the farthest western point of Alaska is to the
farthest eastern point of Siberia. The land bridge was in the area between the two
points that is currently under water.
The Clovis-First Theory says
that once in North America,
people quickly spread south,
Bering Strait
land bridge eventually making their way
down through modern-day
Possible routes for Mexico and then through the
Asia–North America
Isthmus of Panama and finally
migration
into South America. How
do we know this? Because


How did Clovis points get their name?
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Tools of Navigation W E

Ice Age Animals in North America

When the first people came to North America they found a land populated with
many animals we wouldn’t recognize today. These weren’t dinosaurs (remember,
they died out 65 million years ago) but were animals like
mastodons, wooly mammoths, saber-tooth cats, giant
ground sloths, short-faced bear, big-horned bison, the
American lion, horses, oxen, and camels. Nearly all the
large mammals of Ice Age North America became extinct
in the space of 1,000 years, perhaps due to massive climate change and the
arrival of people. Horses were reintroduced to the New World by the Spanish.

archaeologists have discovered the remnants of some very early settlements in

South America.
A problem with the Clovis-First Theory is that once the hunters reached North
America, the migration routes south through the continent were very limited.
The Bering Strait land bridge—an area that scientists call Beringia—would have
been like the tundra. It was a very cold, dry region that didn’t support much plant
life. Once early migrants made their way through Alaska, they had two possible
routes into the southern portions of the continent. One was by way of the Pacific
coast and the other was along the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains. Other
routes would have still been blocked by massive ice fields and glaciers.
Another problem with the Clovis-First Theory is the lack of any Clovis points
in Alaska or the Bering Strait area or along much of the available migration
routes. And not a single Clovis point has been found in northeastern Asia.
There are other theories about how people initially came to North America.
One theory that’s gaining in popularity says that Asians, possibly the early Jomon
people of Japan, who already had a maritime culture, made their way to North

Words to know
North Pacific Rim: the countries bordering the North Pacific, including Japan, China,
North and South Korea, Russia, Canada, and the United States.

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W E Chapter One: Ice Age Navigators

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America by sea. It’s possible they

began to migrate around 15,000
years ago and basically hopped
from island to island along the
North Pacific Rim (look at a map
and notice where the land masses
and islands are in the North
Pacific). It’s believed that these
The North Pacific Rim.
early seagoing peoples guided
their rafts or skin boats while drifting on currents or being blown by the wind.
Perhaps the first time someone reached another island it was a mistake, for
example, a fisherman who was blown off-course or caught in a storm. But when
the fisherman made it back to his home he knew it was possible to make the
journey. Once people knew there was land beyond their settlement, they could
make a decision to travel to it.
Why would anyone want to leave their home?
Assuming these are coastal people, they would want
to leave once the natural resources of an area—like
shellfish or marine mammals that they would have
eaten or driftwood that they depended on for fuel for
fires—were depleted. Coastal people who decided to
travel by water had far greater mobility than people
who were on foot hunting big game as they walked
along the Bering Strait land bridge. They could go much
farther in a shorter period of time if traveling by sea.
Like the Clovis-First Theory, the theory of Asians coming
by sea is not without its problems. Any theory about who
originally came to America is tough to test. In this case, what
would have been coastal villages or encampments of people
British Columbia.
who migrated tens of thousands of years ago now lie almost
400 feet beneath the sea. Underwater archaeologists have made some interesting


Where were the Jomon people from?
 N

Tools of Navigation W E

finds of artifacts off the Greenland Iceland

Baffin
coast of British Columbia,
Island Faroe Islands
Canada, and around Prince of
Wales Island and the Queen Newfoundland
Charlotte Islands. However, in British Isles

order to really test this theory,

the technology required for
this kind of underwater archeology has to be refined and further developed. At
the moment, recovery of these kinds of artifacts is very, very expensive.
There is a third theory. There are archaeologists who believe the first North
Americans arrived by boat but came across the North Atlantic from Europe.
They base their theory on similarities between the Clovis points found in North
America and Solutrean artifacts found in France. One problem with this theory
is that the Solutrean culture ended more than 16,500 years ago and the earliest
Clovis site dates to 11,500 years ago—that leaves a 5,000-year gap. It’s possible
that these early people could have island hopped across the North Atlantic (look
at your modern map and notice the placement of the British Isles, Faroe Islands,
Iceland, Greenland, Baffin Island, and Newfoundland), but the frigid climate
and the extent of the ice during the late Ice Age would certainly have conspired
tish Isles, Fa
against their success. B ri ro
e
Perhaps all of these theories are correct. Archaelogists have found evidence toIs

la
support all of them, and accepting one idea doesn’t mean the others can’t be true

nd
oundla
wfby a variety
as well. People may have migrated to North and South America of

s
e

, Iceland
n

routes from both Asia and Europe—maybe even from Australia and Africa. Some
N

d
, and

could have come by boat and others by foot. Once they were here they migrated
north and south, east and west. What did every person have in common? They
nd

, Gr

navigated their way, whether by land or by sea.

la

en
Is la
d, Baffin n
Words to know
archeology: the study of human cultures through artifacts, human remains, and landscapes.
ice age: intervals of time when large areas of the globe are covered in ice. The Great Ice Age
was the last major ice age in North America and Eurasia.

 Ancient Navigators
Braving the Sea Without a Compass

W hy would ancient people want to

travel to other settlements? Think
about why you go to the next town.
It’s often because that town has something
in it that you want—either people (friends or
relatives) to visit, things to buy, or places to Learn how early
see. Early navigators were also probably early navigators used the sun
traders. They filled their canoes, boats, and later, and the stars
wagons, with goods from their villages, which Explore the night sky
they traded for goods from other settlements.
What occurred along with the transfer of Learn the constellations
goods—like metals, weapons, spices, and and make a sky chart

Good textiles—was a transfer of ideas. Early Trace the ancient,

s fo traders discovered what was legendary trade routes
important to other cultures— and meet Marco Polo
rT

ces, a
i
rad

they learned about their

nd e
ns, sp

accomplishments, art, and

e— m

technological innovations—
es

xtil
and these ideas spread along
o

et
p

als
, wea trade routes.

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Tools of Navigation W E

r
s
d textile

Inquireens
es, an
ns, spic
How did ancient people know how to
eapo
etals, w
eek: m
of the w
e items
Hot trad

p e navigate on the water? How could they

r a d e R outes O red Her
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compasses, no maps like we think of maps,
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just great open expanses of water. The sea
vel eum iri
d here autem
Hea d towar has no guiding landmarks, unlike land
where travelers can follow instructions like “turn left at the big
oak tree by the fork in the stream” or “head toward the mountain that looks like
the head of a cow.” People feared that once they got out on the water, out of sight
of land, they’d never be able to find their way
Which lines of navigation run parallel to each other?

Little Dipper
back home.
People around the world had different ways of
getting where they wanted to go on the water. For North Star
example, experienced early mariners
knew that if they sailed in a certain
direction for a certain period of time
they would find their destination.
They could figure out their north-south Big Dipper

orientation by observing the maximum

height of the sun during the day and the
maximum height of the North Star (also known as the polestar or Polaris) at
night. This would determine latitude—what we think of as invisible parallel

Lines of Latitude Lines of Longitude

North Prime Meridian (0° longitude)
80°
60° 20°W 20°E
40° 40°W 40°E
60°W 60°E
20°
Equator 0°
Equator
20°
40°
60°
80°
10 South
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W E Chapter Two: Ancient Navigators

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lines that encircle the earth. As long as they kept on their course and made sure
that the sun or the North Star remained at the same angle in the sky when they
reached their zenith, mariners could be pretty sure they were traveling due east
or due west. This could be of enormous help if they knew the latitude of their
home port.
Unfortunately, ancient sailors had no way of
determining longitude, or where they were
on an east-west line. Longitude is what
we think of as invisible lines that run
north–south around the earth. These
lines converge, or meet, at the North
and South Poles. Think of a peeled
orange and imagine that the
orange is like the globe—where the
individual sections come together

Ursa Major—the Great Bear

Words to know
latitude: east-west parallel lines that encircle the earth north and south of the equator.
zenith: the highest point reached in the heavens by the sun, moon, or a star.
longitude: north-south lines that converge at the North and South Poles and are measured
in degrees east and west of the prime meridian.
prime meridian: the starting point for reckoning longitude; passes through the original site
of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England.
Ursa Major: the most conspicuous of the constellations in the northern sky. It is near the
North Pole and contains 53 visible stars, seven of which form the Big Dipper. Also called the
Great Bear.
Ursa Minor: one of the northernmost constellations. It contains 23 visible stars, including
those forming the Little Dipper. The most important of these stars is Polaris, the North Star.
Also called the Little Bear.
11
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Tools of Navigation W E

n gitude, S

o drawn on the
looks like what the lines of longitude would look like if they, lwere
How did early navigators determine the distance they had traveled?

eq
de
earth. In order to figure out exactly where they were while traveling along a line

uator, pri
latitu
of latitude, sailors had to have an extremely accurate way of keeping track of time
at sea—they would have to be able to figure out how far they traveled and how
much time it took to travel that distance. Clocks of that day were worthless at sea

an
because the rocking of the boat would make them stop. Navigators wouldn’t be
m

di
e meri
able to figure out longitude with any accuracy until the late eighteenth century
and the invention of the chronometer (a very, very accurate clock) by the English
clockmaker, John Harrison.
Without knowledge of how to determine longitude, early sailors used a system
called “dead reckoning” to estimate how far east or west of a certain point they
were. This required knowing the speed of the ship when it was moving and how
long it took to reach any given point. Dead reckoning is still used today, although
our methods of determining speed and time have greatly improved.

Dead Reckoning
Dead reckoning is dependant on being able to make continuous measurements of
course and distance traveled. A navigator starts at a known point, perhaps a port,
and then measures his course and distance from that point on a chart. Course is
measured by magnetic compass and distance is determined by the speed of the
vessel multiplied by the time traveled.
Navigators, like Christopher Columbus, made these measurements and noted
them in the ship’s log (the journal of the journey). Dead reckoning does not rely
on celestial navigation—you don’t have to know your stars to measure distance
and time. Dead reckoning was originally written in logs as “ded. Reckoning” so
some think this was an abbreviation for “deduced reckoning.” However, the Oxford
English Dictionary thinks the word is “dead” as in “completely” or “absolutely.” A
dead reckoning position is one based completely on reckoning—or calculation.

Words to know
nautical: relating to the sea.
calibrated: marked with or divided into intervals for measuring.
12
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W E Chapter Two: Ancient Navigators

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Chip Log
A chip log was a device that sailors used to measure speed. Chip refers to a
“chip of wood” and log refers to the book where these kinds of details were
recorded. The wood was wedge-shaped and measured about 18 inches long. It
was tied to a rope that was on a large spool at the back of the boat. The rope
was knotted every 47 feet, 3 inches. One sailor threw the wood overboard while
another turned over a sandglass that had 30 seconds worth of sand in it. As the
boat moved away from the wood (which would catch in the water because of its
shape), the rope spun off the spool. A third sailor counted the knots that passed
over the rail. When the 30 seconds was up, the knot counting stopped.
The faster the ship was moving, the greater the length of rope that played
out, and therefore the more knots that were counted. The space between knots
was precisely the amount of rope that would play out in 30 seconds if the boat
was moving one nautical mile per hour. So the number of knots counted in the
30 seconds was equal to the speed of the ship in nautical miles per hour. For
example, if a sailor felt five knots slip
through his hand in 30 seconds, the
ship’s speed would be 5 knots, which
means it would cover five nautical
Timer
miles in an hour if it maintained that
speed. A nautical mile is 6,080 feet. A
land mile is 5,280 feet.
Why did they use 47 feet and 3
inches between knots on the rope and 30 seconds for the time? The length was
based on converting one nautical mile per hour to feet per second, and then
multiplying feet per second by 30 seconds, which was a practical time to spend
counting knots with a sandglass. The result was the calibrated length in feet at
which to tie the knots for a 30-second run of the chip log.

13
How many feet in a nautical mile? Is that greater or less than a land mile?
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ACTIVITY
Learn the Constellations and Make a Sky Chart
Early explorers used the stars to find constellation look like a flying horse?
their way. We’ve lost touch with this Use your imagination. Can you figure
skill. In this activity you will need to out how they got these names?
find a good place to observe the night • Locate the North Star or Polaris on
sky—it’s tough to see the stars if you’re the sky chart. It’s at the end of the
in a city because of the lights. Little Dipper’s handle. Polaris also
lines up with the two stars that
Instructions: make the outside of the dipper
• Study the sky chart on page 11 of of the Big Dipper. This is the most
the evening sky in Central Park, New important star in navigation. Think
York City for July 2005. about how generations of explorers
• Think about these questions: Why and navigators felt safe and sure
does knowing the month and year about their course after locating the
on a sky chart make a difference? North Star.
Why isn’t this sky chart for the • You can make a sky chart for any
entire sky (Northern and Southern time of the year and any location at
Hemisphere)? www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky. Click
• Go out at night and compare the sky “make a sky map” and then set for
chart you have with the position of the nearby city. This interactive web site
stars above you. What’s different? has many options that allow you to
• The constellations have wonderful create as simple or as complicated a
names like Pegasus (the flying horse) sky chart as you like. To start, turn
and Draco (the Dragon). Learn the off all the display options except for
names of the constellations and constellation outlines and names.
find out what they mean. Do the Play around with the magnitude of
constellations look like their names? stars shown. At 4.0 the constellations
For example, does the Pegasus really stand out.

14
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Polaris
(North Star)
Polaris
If you drew a line through the earth that ran through the
Little Dipper
South Pole and the North Pole and then extended it on up
North Pole
into the sky, you would almost hit a very bright star. This
Equator is called the North Star, or Polaris (from the word pole).
Although people talk about Polaris being the brightest
South Pole

star in the sky, it’s actually the 49th brightest star. The
North Star is easy to find and has kept many travelers on course.

Early navigators determined distance traveled by multiplying the time

underway (or how long they had been sailing) by the speed of the vessel. To do
this, navigators used a chip log. Time was often measured with a sandglass (what
we might call an hourglass) and speed was estimated by throwing a piece of wood
off the stern and counting knots tied in a rope that was tied to the log. You can
imagine the wild inaccuracies of this system. Think about what a floating object
like a piece of wood would do if the seas were choppy. Guesses, even educated
guesses, could often be way off.
So how did sailors know where they were going? They often used the stars.
The ancient Egyptians recognized 36 constellations or individual stars along the
ecliptic, an imaginary arc in the sky along which the sun travels during the day
(the sun rises in the east and sets in the west and travels along a particular path
each day of the year). Because the earth turns on its axis as it revolves around the
sun (although the Egyptians didn’t know this), the sun and these stars appear
to move in the sky, always following the same path during the same time of
year. Additionally, the stars appeared to rotate around a fixed star—Polaris—
and ancient navigators knew how to find the North Star in the sky. It’s easier
to imagine this if you think of the night sky as being painted on the inside of a
gigantic bowl that turns. The Egyptians figured out that they could map these
stars or constellations and create a star clock.
Words to know
ecliptic: the sun’s annual path or orbit.
15
Where would the North Star appear in the sky if you were standing at the geographic North Pole?
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Winter
Egypt’s astronomers were the first to figure clouds co
ntinue.
Sale on
last seas
on’s su
n glasse
s
out that latitude made a difference in how high
Sailors L Inquire
in the sky a given star or constellation would Feared
They Sa
ost Due
to Cloud
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appear. For example, as a person traveled
iled Off
the Edg y Weath
eo f the W
orld
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north, the North Star appeared to be higher Lorem ipsum
dol
ctetuer adipi or sit amet, conse
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and higher in the sky. When you are at the lutpat. Ut wi
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geographic North Pole, the North Star is directly ex ea commo
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hendre

overhead. The knowledge of where the stars were at

any time during the night and in any season of the year gave Egyptian sailors the
ability to estimate their ship’s position by making a simple measurement. Several
thousand years ago, it was impossible to accurately calculate time, so latitude
was an approximation (and longitude was almost impossible
to determine). Nonetheless, these calculations were still
Tramontana
enormously useful in navigation, particularly for sailors
Maestro Greco
traveling a north-south route.
Ponente Levante Egyptian sailors determined their approximate
direction by tracing the path of the sun along its ecliptic.
Africus Syroco South was determined by the location of the sun when
Ostro it was at its highest point, and they knew that north was
Ancient Wind Rose. in the opposite direction, and east and west were where the sun
rose and set. At night, sailors steered by the stars. With knowledge of the
constellations and the position of the North Star, they could keep their bearings.
What did ancient sailors do when clouds obscured the sun or the stars? Very simply,
they stayed off the water. For this reason there was www.sailingissues.com
a season for sailing, and throughout ancient times,
the seas were essentially closed to navigation in
winter when it was likely to be cloudy.
Ancient sailors came to rely upon their
knowledge of wind and ocean currents. They
noticed that winds seemed to blow from particular
directions—that there were prevailing winds (not

16
The Tower of the Winds.
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Named Winds
You can find examples of named winds from all around the world. The following
list shows that many cultures like to give their winds colorful names.
Roaring Forties—Very strong westerly winds that blow almost continuously in the
Southern Hemisphere. They’re found at a latitude of 40 degrees—hence their name!
White Squall—A sudden, strong gust of wind usually seen as a whirlwind in clear
weather in the tropics. It comes up without warning, and is noted by whitecaps or white,
broken water.
Squamish—A strong and often violent wind occurring in many of the northeast–
southwest or east-west running fjords of British Columbia where cold polar air can be
funneled. These winds lose their strength when free of the confining fjords and are not
noticeable 15 to 20 miles offshore.
Maestro—A northwesterly wind found in the Adriatic Sea that’s associated with fine
summer weather. It’s most frequent on the western shore.
Santa Ana—A strong, hot, dry wind blowing out into San Pedro Channel from the
southern California desert through Santa Ana Pass.
Nor’easter—A particularly strong northeast wind or gale, or an unusually strong storm
preceded by northeast winds off the coast of New England—also called a Northeaster.
Elephanta—A strong southerly or southeasterly wind that blows on the Malabar coast
of India during September and October and marks the end of the southwest monsoon.
Cordonazo—Also known as the “Lash of St. Francis,” these are southerly hurricane
winds along the west coast of Mexico. It is associated with tropical cyclones in the
southeastern North Pacific Ocean. Although these storms may occur from May to
November, they affect the coastal areas most severely near or after October 4, which is
the Feast of St. Francis.
Harmattan—This is the name of the dry, dusty trade wind blowing off the Sahara
Desert across the Gulf of Guinea and the Cape Verde Islands. It’s also sometimes called
the”Doctor” because of its supposed healthful properties.
Mistral—This is a cold, dry wind blowing from the north over the northwest coast of the
Mediterranean Sea, particularly over the Gulf of Lions.

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just gusts) that weren’t random. Consequently, if a wind was blowing from
In what way could a crystal, such as calcite, be used to help the Vikings navigate on cloudy days?

your town toward another major trading port, that would be the time to set
sail. These winds became known as trade winds (winds favorable for trading).
Early sailors gave the winds names and described their attributes. For example,
a wind coming from the southeast might always be a moist wind, whereas one
that blew from the northeast might be associated with hot, dry weather. When
they put these named winds down on paper (or carved them into stone) it
created a wind rose, which looks something like the points of a compass.
The earliest examples of a wind rose are found in ancient Greece. For example,
the eight-sided Tower of the Winds, which stands in Athens, Greece, and was built
by the second-century-BCE astronomer Andronicus of Macedonia. Each side of
the Tower of the Winds has a picture carved into it depicting a man representing a
named wind. The name of the wind is carved along the top of the wall. In ancient
Greece, sailing directions were more strongly associated with the direction and
force of the prevailing winds than with the sun or stars. If a sailor had knowledge
of these prevailing winds and their characteristics then he could go out to sea with
some confidence that he would be able to stay on a particular bearing. Ptolemy II,
king of Egypt in 250 BCE, added four more winds to the wind rose, creating the
12-point wind rose that was used throughout classical antiquity.

Spain Greece Assyria

Turkey

Crete Cyprus
Mesopotamia

Egypt Arabia

Words to know
BCE: refers to before common era, a modern term for BC.
CE: refers to common era, a modern term for AD.
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Viking Navigation
Ancient mariners may have had an understanding of the migration patterns of
birds and whales. Irish monks and Vikings (Norsemen) traveled from island to
island most likely by following migrating birds. They were sailing so far north
that during the summer months—or the months of the midnight
sun—there would be no stars to follow for there would be no
darkness at night (it was reversed in the winter months). Sailors
learned to watch bird behavior. If they saw a puffin or auk flying
past with a beak full of food, they knew the bird was heading back
toward land and its rookery (where their baby birds were). If the
beak was empty, it was heading out to sea to fish.
Vikings discovered Iceland around 870 CE and then

Atlantic puffin
Greenland about a century later. Floki Vilgjerdarsson, also
known as Raven-Floki, is credited with the discovery of
Iceland. He always carried a cage of ravens onboard ship. When he thought land
was near, he would release one of the birds. If it circled the boat and landed
back aboard, land was not near. If it flew off in a particular direction, the boat
followed because they knew the bird would head toward land and food.

Many people mistakenly believe that ancient sailors hugged coastlines and
stayed within sight of land because of the fear of getting lost. This doesn’t seem
to be true. Although there is a natural fear of the unknown and when you’re out
at sea you can’t see any land no matter which direction you look, the greatest fear
of any sailor is actually running aground or smashing against offshore reefs or
underwater rocks. Chances of running aground were much greater if you were
within sight of land.
The Minoan civilization (during the Bronze Age) on the island of Crete in the
middle of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, thrived on extensive trade with other
nations like Greece, Syria, Egypt, Spain, and Mesopotamia. This required Minoan
sailors to spend days and sometimes even weeks out of sight of land. Records from
19
What was the name of the Viking who discovered Newfoundland and who was his famous father?
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Kon-Tiki
In 1947, Thor Heyerdahl and five other adventurers set off to cross the Pacific
Ocean from east to west on a raft that was a copy of
a prehistoric South American vessel. Heyerdahl was
attempting to prove that Polynesia could have been
settled by people sailing from South America. After an
amazing journey of 101 days and 4,300 nautical miles
on a raft made from balsa wood, Heyerdahl spotted land.
Kon-Tiki and her crew landed on the island of Raroia.
The Kon-Tiki.
This successful voyage proved that the Polynesian
islands were within range of prehistoric South American people.
A replica of the Kon-Tiki raft will sail the Pacific in 2005 and a grandson of
Heyerdahl will be on board.

the Phoenicians, the ancient Israelites, Egyptians, Maltans, Romans, and Greeks all
show they had trading partners far away from their home ports.
Leif the Lucky, son of Eric the Red who discovered and named Greenland, came
upon Newfoundland around 1000 CE and briefly established a colony in what
he called Vineland. The Icelandic sagas, stories passed down from generation to
generation, tell the story of how Vikings sailed from Norway to Iceland, then to
Greenland, then on to Newfoundland. How did they do it before they had access
to the magnetic compass? Unlike the ancient mariners of the Mediterranean,
there isn’t even evidence that the Vikings had anything that kept time, like an
hourglass or sandglass.
Archaeologists have suggested that the Vikings may have used a crystal, like
calcite, for orientation. If you hold a piece of calcite up to the sun and look
through it, the light is polarized and the crystal turns a different color. Viking
sailors might have been able to use the crystal to help figure out where the
sun was when obscured by clouds. Sun stones are mentioned in the Icelandic
sagas—but there is no real evidence that sun stones were used for navigation.
20
What are some of the ways ancient Vikings navigated without instruments?
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W E Chapter Two: Ancient Navigators

S ol o
S

Wemdo know that the Vikings had many ways to determine direction: they knew
on the winds blew, they had a good idea what it meant when they
s,
which direction
Va and they knew where whales were likely to be at particular
saw particular birds,
times of the year.

nu
Some of the most amazing navigators in the world prior to the development of
the magnetic compass were the people of Oceania (another name for the islands

at
in the Central and South Pacific Ocean). Long before Columbus and Magellan and

u,
the European age of exploration, a nation of seafarers had already discovered and
colonized the vast expanse of Pacific Islands. Some 6,000 years ago, seafarers left
Fi
islands in eastern Indonesia and the Philippines to branch into the western Pacific.
ji,
Archaeologists trace their migrations by the cultural materials they brought with
To
n
them. Shell hooks, coral files, and bone tattooing needles have been found in sites
ga
from the Bismark Archipelago, near New Guinea, all the way to the Solomon
and ,
Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa. Scientists call these early seafarers the
a
Samorovolcanic
Lapita people. Adzes and other cutting tools, chipped from obsidian,
glass, have been found in the ruins of their settlements. Obsidian was evidently
one commodity in an extensive network of trade that connected the islands of
the Lapita peoples until the dispersal of the culture in 500 BCE. Normally we

MICRONESIA
Philippines
Marshall Islands
Guam

Caroline Islands
Equator
New Guinea

Solomon Islands

Indonesia Samoa
Vanuatu
Fiji
MELANESIA
Tonga
Australia New
Caledonia

POLYNESIA

Oceania New Zealand

21
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think of the Europeans as the great explorers of the

world, “discovering” the Americas and venturing far
and wide across the Pacific all the way to Asia. But
when the Greeks were still making short hops between
islands in the Aegean, Lapita navigators were making
long, open-sea passages without charts, compasses, or
instruments. That would be like you traveling across
the country without a map.
Over time, as the Lapita people colonized more Present-day depiction of an
early Lapita navigator.
islands, these settlers developed a unique set of
languages and cultural traits, which today distinguish Micronesia from Polynesia
and Melanesia, the two other cultural areas of Oceania.
On Tonga and Samoa, the Lapita people developed a distinct Polynesian
language and culture. Then about 2,000 years ago they voyaged into the eastern
Pacific, making the 1,800-mile windward passage to the Marquesas Islands.
Later, perhaps following the migratory flight paths of birds, they discovered and
colonized Tahiti, Hawaii, New Zealand, and tiny Easter Island, a feat of seafaring
as great as any discovery by a European explorer. Thus, all of Oceania, an area
nearly a quarter of the earth, was populated by a single race. Navigators using
just the stars, the ocean swells, and the flight paths of birds were making epic
ocean voyages in sailing canoes at a time when most Europeans were content to
stay in the safety of their villages.
Upon discovering the Hawaiian Islands in 1778, which he named the
Sandwich Islands after the Earl of Sandwich, Captain James Cook wrote:

Words to know
Polynesia: from the Greek poly=many and nesos=island. Over 1,000 islands; a triangle
with its three corners at Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter Island. It covers the central and
southern Pacific Ocean.
Micronesia: from the Greek micro=small and nesos=island. Islands in the western Pacific
bordered by the Philippines to the west, Indonesia to the southwest, and Polynesia to the east.
Melanesia: from the Greek mela=black and nesos=island. The oldest of the Pacific people,
includes Fiji, New Guinea, Caledonia, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Maluku, Torres Strait Islands.
22
What are the three basic requirements for successful navigation at sea?
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m
med for Hi

Inquirer
scovery Na
ts New Di

Page 3 Go
ssip: Earl of Sand
wich Insis
“How shall we account for this Nation
ar 1778
some time
in the ye
spreading itself over this Vast ocean? We
r s S a n d w ic h Iseslands
e
Cook Discov Origin of Islands’ Nam
find them from New Zealand to the South,
r sit amet, conse
Over Lorem ipsum dolo
D ebate Rages ctetuer adipiscing
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elit, sed diam no
mod tincidunt ut la to these islands to the North and from
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Easter Island to the Hebrides.” Cook had
orper suscipit lobort uat. Duis
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discovered the Polynesians, descendants
ex ea com mod o
n) autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendre
(Artist Renditio

of the Lapita. The indigenous navigating tradition was

still very much alive in Oceania but in the following years of European
exploration and trade, these navigators all but disappeared.
Now, throughout Polynesia and in much of Micronesia,
the tradition is forgotten. The central Caroline Islands
is one of the few places where traditional navigation
is still practiced and the “talk of the sea” has been
passed from father to son in a tradition that stretches Mysterious
back thousands of years. carved statues
that dominate
What is the difference between the traditions Easter Island.
of Micronesian navigation and European oceanic
navigation? There are three basic requirements for a
successful navigation system at sea. First, the navigator needs to figure out
how he’s going to get to his destination by plotting a course. Then he has to
maintain that course at sea. And finally, he has to figure out how to measure and
compensate for his boat being blown off course by currents, winds, or storms.

European Navigation
Historically, European ocean
navigation was a system
that integrated charts and
instruments. The chart gave
European or western navigators
the means to find their course
by clearly identifying the chosen

Map of the known world in 1780. 23

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destination. A nautical chart is much like a road map. Islands, reefs, and continents
are laid out in correct relation to one another, and on more modern charts, according
to Mercator’s projection (you’ll learn about this later). A compass rose is printed on
the chart with geographic north oriented toward the top and lines of latitude and

Sounding Line
Probably the earliest navigator’s instrument invented was the sounding line. This
is a long line with knots marking distance (the knots marked fathoms, which is
a unit for measuring the depth of water and is equal to 1.8 meters or 2 yards).
A lead weight was at the end of the line, helping it to sink to the bottom. By
counting the number of knots from the water to the sea floor the navigator could
determine the depth of the sea. The bottom of the lead weight often had tallow
(rendered pig’s fat that was used in candle making) rubbed on it so that when the
sounding line was brought up, whatever was on the sea floor stuck to the tallow,
allowing the sailor to check what kind of sediment lay at the bottom.
As a ship approached the shore, a sailor took frequent soundings. Eventually,
this kind of information was added to charts and portolans, which were maps
that showed the coastlines. Portolans started to carry notations indicating what
a sailor could expect to find on the ocean floor at any particular depth. If you
look at a really old map you might notice words like fine sediment, sand, silt, or
smooth round pebbles written at particular
depths along the coastline. That way, if a
sailor took a sounding and his sounding
line brought up sediment that matched a
description, it could help determine exactly Sounding Line
where the ship was on the map.
Ocean floor
Words to know
portolan: ancient pilot books containing hand-
drawn charts and descriptions of harbors and sea coasts.
lore: knowledge gained through tradition, passed down from one generation to the next.
24
What are the units for measuring the depth of water?
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longitude measuring degrees and minutes are drawn onto the chart (one minute
equals one nautical mile and 60 minutes equals one degree). With instruments like
the compass and sextant, western navigators could check the speed and direction
of the currents, keep their course at sea, and fix their position using the sun, moon,
stars, and planets. All of these measurements allowed them to produce a dead
reckoning, which was regularly updated to keep the ship on course.

Palu, the Micronesian Navigator

The Micronesian system of navigation is called Etak and is mastered by
palu, the navigator. Like European navigation, Micronesian navigation
is an integrated system. But unlike a European or western navigation
system it does not rely on written materials and instruments. Rather,
it combines a vast body of lore and the navigator’s own senses. The
palu guides his outrigger canoe by the stars at night and with his
knowledge of ocean swells and currents during the day and on overcast
nights. He keeps the star paths (the rising and setting of the
stars) of 32 stars, which form a kind of star compass, in
his head at all times. He knows which stars are over
which islands during any particular season and time of
night. He also recognizes eight “waves,” one from each
octant (one-eighth) of the compass. Etak assumes that palu,
the navigator, is in a canoe that is stationary, and that the islands
move on the sea around him. This concept is hard for us to even imagine because
we are sure that the canoe is moving. But with the same conviction, the palu is
certain that his canoe is stationary and the world is moving around him. In his
worldview, islands come toward him and move away from him.
The palu must be able to read the stars, the waves, and the clouds, as well
as the creatures of the sea. He knows which birds inhabit which islands and he
also has been taught that each island has a ring of specific
sea creatures around it. When he sets out in his outrigger
sailing canoe, it is with this knowledge in his head. Nothing

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is written down. And all these strands of knowledge interconnect in the palu’s
mind and allow him to successfully guide his canoe.
“Talk of the Sea”
The palu is responsible for guiding his people to food and to other islands
and because of this knowledge, he holds a revered status in his culture, much
like a chief. If he cannot guide the fishermen to the fish, his people starve. His
knowledge of the sea and of the world was taught to him by his father and he
alone can pass this knowledge—the “talk of the sea”—on to the next generation.

The Silk Road

Not all navigation occurs on water. People also had to make their way across
unknown expanses of land. They found themselves braving the elements—
fighting windstorms in a desert or howling snowstorms on mountain passes—in
their quest to discover new lands to settle or new people to trade with. One of the
most famous overland routes was a trade route known as the Silk Road. When
you hear the phrase “Silk Road,” don’t think of a single highway stretching
from southern China to the Mediterranean Sea, rather, think of interconnected
roads and trails weaving their way from east to west, bringing new ideas and
merchandise to all the towns and villages along the way. These routes connected
far-off and distant cultures that had arisen in the Mediterranean, India, and the
Far East.

t
Rome
s er
EUROPE ASIA i De
Tu r p a n A n x i G o b
Sam a r k a n d
Mediterranean Sea X i’an
Baghda d
Him
alayas
CHINA
ARABIA INDIA
Re
d

South
Se

AFRICA Arabian China

a

Bay of
Sea Sea
Bengal
Land routes
INDIAN OCEAN
Sea routes
Equator

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This important trade route had its beginnings over 2,000 years ago when a
Chinese emperor sent an emissary to the west in search of better horses. Within
a couple of decades, the Romans saw their first pieces of silk fabric from China
and wanted more. Pliny, a famous Roman intellectual, opined that silk was from
trees and was “obtained by removing the down from the leaves with the help of
water.” The silk merchants of China knew they had a valuable commodity
and for hundreds of years tried to keep the details of silk production
(sericulture) a secret. Everyone was searched at the borders of silk-
producing towns in China, but it was inevitable that the secret
would eventually be revealed. One story tells of a princess who Silkworm.
was betrothed to a prince in a far-off western region and how
she smuggled silkworm eggs in her hair and mulberry seeds in her medicines
(silkworms eat mulberry leaves).
The Silk Road also introduced Europe
davestravelcorner.com

and the West to spices—particularly

nutmeg, cloves, and peppercorns—from
the East. These spices only grew on
particular islands in the Far East known
as the Spice Islands. As Arab traders
pushed further east and Eastern traders
pushed west, they began to exchange
Spices for trade.
goods, including spices, which became
worth more than their weight in gold. It was said that every time a load of spices
changed hands, the price went up a hundred-fold. And sometimes spices traded
hands about a hundred times in the course of their journey from east to west.

Words to know
Far East: China, Japan, and other countries of East Asia.
emissary: someone sent on a mission.
sericulture: the production of raw silk by raising silkworms.
Spice Islands: the Maluku Islands, now part of Indonesia. Until the late 1700s, the only
source of cloves, nutmeg, and mace.
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Bactrian Camels
Bactrian camels (Camelus bactrianus) are the ancestors of all domestic camels.
They were formerly found in the deserts of Mongolia and northwestern China
and into Kazahkstan but are currently only found in a few isolated places. These
two-humped camels are extremely well adapted to harsh desert climates—they
have dense eyelashes and narrow nostrils that close tightly during sandstorms.
Their two-toed feet have connective tissue between the toes that allows their feet
to spread to make it easier to walk on the sand. They eat mainly shrubs and their
humps store excess fat, allowing them to go for many days without food. They
can also go for a period of time without water (it is
not stored in the humps) because their bodies are good
at conserving water. When they locate water, they’re
able to drink up to 57 liters at one time. Some of these
camels have developed the ability to drink salt water—
and they’re the only mammals capable of this feat.

Most merchants or traders had several routes to choose from when traveling
along the Silk Road. Often, the shortest routes were the most dangerous because
of treacherous conditions—too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter, or
swarming with bandits—so traders had to balance speed with safety. Routes
were established based on geography and climate, to minimize the amount of
time in the mountains or in the deserts. Towns or oases (places where caravans
stopped to rest and get food and water) sprung up along these routes. Many
traders traveled together in caravans of up to 100 camels or more and then hired
guards to patrol the route for bandits. Traders used Bactrian camels, or the camels
with two humps, which had amazing endurance for the long, hard trip and could
be loaded with up to 500 pounds of merchandise.

Words to know
Dark Ages: the period in European history between the fall of the Roman Empire and the
Middle Ages, 500–1100 CE.
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A merchant would bring his goods to

What do silkworms eat?

a market in a trading town and then sell
or trade them before continuing on his
journey. Most traders never traveled the
entire length of the Silk Road because they
traded their merchandise along the way
and once it was sold or traded there was
no reason to continue on.
The height of trade on the Silk Road
occurred during the Tang Dynasty (618–
907 CE) in China. The Chinese sent silk,
Statue of Buddha.
furs, spices, jade, bronze, iron, and lacquer
objects west in exchange for gold, gems, ivory, glass, perfumes, and textiles.
There was a constant flow of ideas and customs along the trade route as well.
Buddhism—which would become an extremely important religion in China—
made its way from India to China via a Silk Road route. The Silk Road trade route
experienced a sharp decline in the tenth century as Europe entered into a period
known as the Dark Ages. The Second Crusades in the thirteenth century—a time
when European armies tried to spread Christendom into lands held by non-
Christians—created a new demand for
Asian goods in Europe. Why? Because
when the Crusaders returned home they
brought goods from the East—like silk
and spices—back with them.
Navigating the well-traveled routes
along the Silk Road was easy. While
the geography changed dramatically
from rolling plains to almost impassable
mountains to impenetrable deserts, the
stars in the sky remained the same for
travelers on this predominantly east-

The Crusades. 29
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Marco Polo (1254–1324)

A lot of what we know about the Far East and
the Silk Road comes from the travels of Marco
Polo. This amazing, intrepid traveler was born
in thirteenth-century Venice, a powerful trading
city in Italy. Marco’s father and uncle were
among the first European traders to make their
way east all the way to China along the Silk
Road. When they came back home to Venice,
part of their mission was to obtain certain items
like letters and some oil from the lamp at the
Holy Sepulchre from the Pope in Rome. These
items had been requested by Kublai Khan, the
Mongol ruler of what was the largest empire in the world, which included China.
When they set out for the Far East again, they took along 17-year-old Marco.
Marco Polo traveled throughout Asia for the next 24 years. He became a
great friend and advisor to Kublai Khan. He served in his court and was sent on
missions to Burma, India, and throughout China. A gifted linguist, he mastered
four languages, which helped in his service to the Khan.
We know a great deal about Marco Polo’s travels even though they happened
over 700 years ago because they were recorded in a book. Within a year of
returning to Venice, Marco Polo found himself in prison in Genoa after being
captured by the Genoans during a sea battle. (Venice and Genoa were fierce rival
Italian city-states and were always competing for control of the Silk Road trade
before the goods entered Europe.)
While in prison, Marco Polo dictated stories of his travels to a fellow
inmate, Rustichello of Pisa. The story of his travels was known in his time as
The Description of the World or The Travels of Marco Polo. His account of

30
Why was the Bactrian Camel so important to trade on the Silk Road?
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the wealth of Cathay (China), the might of the Mongol empire, and the exotic
customs of India and Africa made his book an immediate bestseller. Later it
became one of the most popular books in medieval Europe and its impact on
contemporary Europe was tremendous. The book was affectionately known as
Il Milione, the Million Lies, and Marco Polo earned the nickname of Marco
Milione because few people believed that his stories could be true.
What can we learn about navigation from Marco Polo? Well, even though
people during his time didn’t believe a lot of what he claimed, some of the
mapmakers of the day incorporated his information into important maps
of the later Middle Ages. These maps, like the Catalan World Map of 1375,
were studied with great interest by explorers like Henry the Navigator (a
Portuguese prince who organized and encouraged exploration) and Christopher
Columbus.
As more people try to trace or recreate Marco Polo’s routes as outlined in his
book, they’re finding that the information, even though 700 years old, is still
accurate today. His system of measuring distances by days’ journey has turned
out to be remarkably accurate. In the 1960s, writer Tim Severin tried to trace one
of Marco Polo’s routes to China by hopping on a motorcycle in Venice and heading
east with only Marco Polo’s Travels as his guidebook. While traveling through
villages and towns in Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan, he was able to pinpoint his
modern-day position by reading Polo’s ancient descriptions.

west route. The main trade routes lay between 30 and 40 degrees latitude in the
Northern Hemisphere. Knowledge of the stars within this portion of the sky
moved along the Silk Road with the more tangible commodities. In addition to
trading tangible goods, the Silk Road was a bit like today’s Internet, a place where
information and ideas were exchanged over thousands of miles. Where would

Words to know
intrepid: not afraid or intimidated.
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Tools of Navigation W E

we be today without the

plow, gunpowder, paper,
or movable type—all
inventions from the East
that came overland via
the Silk Road?
The end of trade along
the Silk Road came in
the fifteenth century. The
Ming Dynasty (1368–1644
CE) of China closed its
Old map of Spice Islands.
borders because of what it
saw as corrupting influences from the West. Around the same time, Europeans
discovered a reliable sea route to Asia, which proved to be less dangerous,
less costly, and less time-consuming than traveling by land. Once Europeans
discovered the Spice Islands by sea they were no longer dependent on Arab
traders from the East for spies. Persians and Italians had also discovered how to
manufacture silk, which lessened the Western demand for silk from the East.

. . . silk, furs, spices, jade, bronze, iron,

and lacquer objects . . . in exchange for
gold, gems, ivory, glass, perfumes,
dyes, and textiles.

32
 The World Expands
The Age of European Exploration

A lthough it seems like a cliché, the

magnetic compass really
instrument that changed how we
view the world. It allowed explorers to push far
into the unknown world and make it the known
is the

Learn about latitude

and longitude
world, opening up maritime trade routes that
Explore early maps
we benefit from to this day.
Make your own compass
The Compass
How and why does a compass work? The Meet the great explorers
earth’s core is molten iron that swirls around and circumnavigate the
in a spherical pattern. This sets up a dynamo
globe
action resulting in magnetism, a gigantic Measure your local time
magnetic field surrounding the earth where
invisible lines of force exist that
run between two points
called a magnetic north
and a magnetic south
pole. The magnetic
field “pulls” on iron
33
Earth’s magnetic field.
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Magnetic North VS Geographic North

The magnetic north pole is not the same as the geographic North Pole, which puts
a wrinkle in determining an accurate bearing. This is called magnetic deviation
(the magnet deviates from geographic north) and scientific charts and tables were
drawn up showing how deviation changes from place to place, and from time to
time. This allowed a navigator to“correct”for deviation and produce bearings and
readings that corresponded to geographic north. Today, magnetic north lies about
1,000 miles south of geographic north, in the vicinity of Prince of Wales Island in
Canada. If you are trying to plot a compass course on a map in Maine, you would
have to set your compass or correct for a declination of about 20 degrees.
Deviation
Magnetic
ic North
Geograph
and similar metals and either attracts or repels other magnets Magnetic
North

depending on their orientation. Like poles (north-north or

south-south) repel each other and unlike poles (north-south)
attract.
The compass needle is a tiny magnet suspended in air or
liquid so it can rotate freely and orient itself. Because the
needle is magnetized, it will always seek to be oriented with
the earth’s magnetic field. Over time, mariners realized that a
compass needle can be affected by metal objects on a ship so they
learned how to correct this problem.
The origins of the compass are mysterious, but most certainly lie in ancient
China. The Chinese recognized the magnetic properties of lodestone (a naturally
occurring magnetized form of the mineral magnetite). The palace gate of Ch’in
Shi Huang-ti, who ruled China until 210 BCE, was made from lodestone and
anyone who tried to enter the palace carrying concealed iron weapons was
detected. You can think of this as the first metal detector. SOUTH
Ancient Chinese texts refer to ladles or spoons with the
mysterious quality that they always pointed south (which
means the other end pointed north). These ladles
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were made of lodestone and functioned as compasses. Chinese emperors viewed

south as the imperial direction.
By 1040 CE the Chinese were constructing and using iron-fish compasses.
They made a fish—thin as a leaf—out of iron by pouring molten iron into a mold
and letting it cool and solidify in the direction of the earth’s magnetic field. This
creates magnetism in the metal in a process called
thermoremanence. This thin iron fish would then be
floated in a dish of water and the fish’s head would
naturally point south, in the imperial direction. What’s
interesting is that there’s scant evidence that the Chinese used
the magnetic compass for navigating. Rather, they used the
SOUTH compass in feng shui, which is the practice of placing buildings—and
windows, doors, and furniture within buildings—in certain orientations,
in belief that properly placed objects would help ensure that life would be in
harmony.
The magnetic compass was first mentioned in the West in the writings of
Alexander Neckam (1157–1217), an English Augustinian monk. In his book De
Naturis Rerum (1187), he writes:
The sailors, moreover, as they sail over the sea, when in cloudy weather
they can no longer profit by the light of the sun, or when the world is
wrapped up in the darkness of the shades of night, and they are ignorant
to what point of the compass their ship’s course is directed, they touch the
magnet with a needle. This then whirls round in a circle until, when its
motion ceases, its point looks direct to the north.

Words to know
bearing: a direction or a path.
magnetic deviation: the error of a compass due to local magnetic disturbances.
declination: comparable to latitude, measured in degrees north of the equator.
lodestone: the mineral magnetite, which has magnetic properties.
thermoremanence: letting molten iron cool in the direction of the earth’s magnetic field so
the iron becomes magnetized.
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ACTIVITY
N N
Make Your Own Compass
N In this activity we learn how to make our own compass. It won’t be as accurate N
as something you can buy from the store, but it will give you a really good idea
N how and why a compass works. N
Supplies:
N • Half gallon paper milk carton N
• 1.5 inch nail with a head (steel, not iron)
• Cardboard
N N
• Large metal paperclip
• A magnet
N • Glue or tape N
• Paper
N • Markers N
2 inches

Instructions:
N N
• Cut the top off the milk carton so you have an open “box” with sides about
two inches high.
N N
• Poke the nail up through the center of the bottom of the milk carton so the
point of the nail is sticking up in the center of the box.
N N
• Cut a circle out of the cardboard, making
sure that it fits in the box. Be careful to cut a
N N
good circle—perhaps trace around a jar lid.
2 inches
• Straighten out the metal paperclip and lay
N N
it across the center of the cardboard circle. If it is
longer than the circle, cut to fit. (Hint: Make sure it’s a
N large paperclip because a small one is too light-weight for this compass.) N

W E

36
Where is magnetic north? How many miles from the North Pole?
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W E Chapter Three: The World Expands

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N N
• Magnetize the paperclip by running the magnet
back and forth across the entire paperclip for
N several minutes. Test the paperclip to see if it’s N
magnetized by placing it against something
N metal. N
• Glue or tape the paperclip to the cardboard circle so that it lies just slightly
N off-center. N
• Place your cardboard circle on top of a piece of paper and
N trace it. N
• Cut out the paper circle.
N • Create a compass rose on the paper N
circle making sure you notate N, NE,
E, SE, S, SW, W, and NW. N
N
• Glue the paper circle onto the cardboard circle so that the
paperclip is sandwiched between the two. MAKE SURE
N N
THAT ONE END OF YOUR PAPERCLIP IS UNDER NORTH AND
THE OTHER IS UNDER SOUTH.
N N
• Place the center of the bottom of your cardboard circle on the point of the nail.
Don’t poke the nail all the way through but
N N
make a good indent so the cardboard
circle is resting comfortably on the
N N
nail but can still turn.
• Slowly turn your compass box
N N
and watch how the compass rose
continues to point to north.
N
N

W E

37
When was the compass invented?
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Tools of Navigation W E

Some put the invention of the magnetic compass in the West

in the Mediterranean port town of Amalfi. From the twelfth
century through the mid-fourteenth century, Amalfi was the
major naval power on the Mediterranean. Whoever controlled the Amalfi

Mediterranean Sea, controlled the trade. While the compass was not
actually invented in Amalfi, it was probably perfected there. About this
time, the compass was transformed from a needle (or thin fish) floating in
water to the compass we know today: a round box containing a compass card with
the wind rose calibrated into 360 degrees and a magnetic element (a needle).
The magnetic compass became standard equipment on ships sometime in
the fourteenth century. This was invaluable for sailing out at sea, like in the
Mediterranean and the Atlantic, whose depths precluded effective use of the
sounding line. Navigators could now use charts and maps that included a
combination of sounding information (the depth of
ld” adve
nture the water and materials on the sea floor) and bearing
irer
y “New Wor
funded risk

(sailing by a set course). The Portuguese and Spanish

u
ed to have

q
s rumor

n
h jewel

I
Spanis

at
sk, ”wh took navigation to the next level by using celestial
Many a n Isabella
bus
r Colffutomfind s Qu ee
wa
i s to p he thinkin
g?”
observations in combination with a compass and
Chr hiz Kid Sets o
W
nse
um dolor
co
sit amet, no
Lorem ips cing elit, sed diam
Sailing ipis
ctetuer ad euismod tincidunt
ut la

a New
World h
nummy nib magna aliquam era
e
oreet dolor i enim ad minim ve
t vo
nia an astrolabe (an early form of the sextant) to
wis mc
lutpat. Ut ud exerci tation ulla

estimate positions. Christopher Columbus was a

qu is no str l ut aliq uip
m, nis
ipit lobortis is
orper susc odo consequat. Du
ndre
ex ea comm m iriure dolor in he
l eu
autem ve
orld
New W ay whiz at dead reckoning—estimating position by
this w
figuring out speed and time traveled, and extending the result
along the compass course from the previous known position.
Once the compass was applied to navigation, the whole world opened up.
It’s hard to imagine that an object that will fit in your hand could have such an
enormous impact, but this navigational aid allowed travelers to go across great
expanses of uncharted territory with the confidence that they could return again.

Words to know
celestial: relating to the stars.
astrolabe: an instrument used to calculate latitude.
cardinal points: north, south, east, and west.
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Maps: Navigating on Land and Sea

What do we want to learn from a map? How about where things are in relation
to one another? Or the scale, so we can know how far it is from this point of the
stream to that distant mountain or measure the width of the mouth of that bay.
This knowledge will help determine how long it’s going to take to travel these
distances. A good map will give you orientation (in other words, tell you which
direction is north), a scale (an inch equals so many miles), and will show basic
landmarks. The more detailed a map, the easier it is to figure out where you are.
The earliest maps we have come from Iraq and date to about 2,300 BCE. These
maps, inscribed on clay tablets, show settlements, streams, mountains, and some
scale. They also show three of the four cardinal points (north, east, and west)
by naming the winds associated with them. The south wind is missing. Ancient
maps were oriented east, presumably because that was the direction of sunrise.
Medieval Christian maps were also oriented east because that was supposed to
be the direction of Paradise.
One of the most influential early mapmakers was
Ptolemy, who lived in Alexandria, Egypt in the first
century CE. He wrote two influential books—one on
astronomy (Almagest) and the other on geography
(Geography)—and his influence on how we view the
world persists to this day.
What’s neat is that 2,000 years ago, Ptolemy came
up with a definition for geography that we still use
today. “Geography,” he wrote, “is a representation
Ptolemy.
in pictures of the whole known world together with
the phenomena which are contained therein.” What this means in practical terms
is that you don’t put things on a map you haven’t actually seen. Exploration and
discovery always have to precede cartography (mapmaking).
Ptolemy thought the earth was round and when making his map of the known
world, he worked with lines of latitude and longitude. In mapmaking these are
known as parallels (east-west) and meridians (north-south).
39
Who was a whiz at estimating his positions at sea using a compass?
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Tools of Navigation W E

Land Miles vs. Nautical Miles

While we’re looking at definitions let’s look at the difference between a mile on
land and a nautical mile. The mile was originally a Roman measure of 1,000
paces, which equaled about 1,618 yards. Along Roman roads, they used to erect
stones every mile (milestones) to measure the distance from Rome. Today, a land
mile is 1,760 yards, or 5,280 feet because in 1593, Queen Elizabeth I of England
proclaimed it to be so (that’s why it’s known as a “statute” mile). But you can’t
measure the ocean by paces. So using geometry, a nautical mile is based on
the length of one minute of arc, which is Z\n/ of a degree. Here’s how it works.
There are 360 degrees in a circle. If you measure the circumference of the earth
at 0 degrees latitude (or the equator) in feet and then divide that number by 360
degrees and then divide that number by 60 minutes (for 60 minutes in each
degree), you come up with the number of feet in a nautical mile.
So at the equator there are 60 nautical miles to each degree.
As you move north or south, the circumference of d by
3 6 0 di vi d e d b y 6
ivid
e 0e
d equator divided qu
the earth becomes smaller and smaller so the 00 eet)
at the by 3 60 als
,0 nc
e(
in f de
gre
es
6
re
28

,0
fe
number of miles in each degree gets less. m i
1,3

80
n
u

ac
ir c

ric
sc
13

The mile finally had to be defined as a

le
th’

d
ear

ivid
standardized number so the

ed b
North
0° latitude—Equator

y
Pole

60 minutes in each de
British assigned it a standard
average value of 6,080 feet. This
makes a nautical mile 800 feet longer
gre

than a land mile. It’s too bad we don’t

eq e
ua
ls

use the same “mile” on both land and sea.

6,
0

80
fee
in t
nau a
ti

Words to know:
cal m
i le

summer solstice: in the Northern Hemisphere, when the sun is at its northernmost point,
on June 21.
Tropic of Cancer: the northernmost latitude where the sun can shine directly overhead on
the summer solstice, at latitude 23°30’N.
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Determining the Circumference of the Earth

Eratosthenes (c. 276–194 BCE) was born in Cyrene on the north coast of Africa,
educated in Athens, and came to Egypt in his thirties. He was a skilled geographer,
astronomer, poet, and literary critic and served as a librarian at the famous library
of Alexandria. He solved many mathematical problems but his greatest feat was
to measure the size of the earth.
He placed a pole perfectly upright in the ground to make a simple sundial. At
noon in Alexandria on the summer solstice he measured the length of the shadow,
and calculated that the sun was 7 degrees south of the vertical. He then traveled
south to Aswan on the Tropic of Cancer. Two thousand years ago it was known by
its Greek name, Syene, and possessed a number of deep wells.
Eratosthenes had heard that if you looked into one of the wells at Syene at
noon on the summer solstice you could see the sun reflected in the water at the
bottom. Because the water surface was horizontal, he realized this must mean
the sun was exactly overhead. However, a ray of sunlight falling on Alexandria
at noon on midsummer’s day was at an angle of 7 degrees. Consequently the
difference in angle of the sun between the two places was one fifty-first of a full
circle (360/7 = 51), and therefore the distance between Syene and Alexandria was
exactly one fifty-first part of the circumference of the earth.
Therefore, if he could measure the distance between the two cities, he could
estimate the size of the earth. Luckily he had the use of the Royal Pacers: soldiers
trained to pace precisely the same distance in each stride. Counting their strides,
he was able to measure the distance between the two cities, approximately
500 miles. As a result he calculated that the circumference of the earth was 51
multiplied by 500, or 25,500 miles. This figure was accurate to within about one
percent of the true figure, which is about 24,901 miles.While Syene was not quite
on the Tropic of Cancer and the distance between Syene and Alexandria was a bit
less than 500 miles, Eratosthenes was remarkably close nonetheless.

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Tools of Navigation W E

He figured out that parallels, or lines of latitude, had to be parallel to one

another, whereas meridians had to be arcs of a circle that came together at the
poles. He knew that when he drew a map of the world on a flat surface there had
to be certain adjustments to retain a semblance of spherical properties with a
minimum of distortion. Ptolemy’s map projection comes closest to being what is
now known as an equal-area projection: where equal areas on the earth’s surface
appear as equal areas on the map.
Another innovation by Ptolemy was to orient the map with north at the top
and east to the right (that’s the way we read maps today), his reason being that
much more was known about the northern latitudes.
Ptolemy’s ideas were pretty much lost to the Western world for more than a
thousand years after much of the city of Alexandria was destroyed in 391 CE. The
library that housed Ptolemy’s works was sacked and the contents were burned. It
was only through the efforts of some Arab scholars that Ptolemy’s works weren’t
lost forever. Although the originals were burned, copies and Lines of Latitude
works based on the originals were used by Arab scholars as they
developed their own cartographic traditions. Ptolemy’s ideas
were all but forgotten in the West until the Arabic versions
were translated back into Greek in the thirteenth century and
then into Latin by the early fifteenth century. After Medieval
times (also known as the Dark Ages), Europeans were ready for parallels
Ptolemy’s ideas, which guided some important explorers in their
search for a westward sea route to the Far East.
Road maps developed as early as the Roman Empire. Thought
Lines of Longitude
to be used by Roman soldiers and early travelers, these maps

Parallels and Meridians

Parallels on a map equal the lines of latitude and run east–
west. They are parallel to each other. Meridians on a map are
lines of longitude, which actually curve toward and meet at the
meridians
poles. Meridians run north–south.

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Ptolemy’s Errors
Ptolemy made three basic errors. First, he put the earth at the center of the
universe. We still speak in Ptolemic terms when we say, “the sun rises in the east
and sets in the west,” which presumes the sun revolves around the earth rather
than the other way around. His other error was to reject earlier measurements of
the circumference of the earth, which were remarkably accurate. The result was
the assumption that the world was about three-fourths its actual size. He also
assumed that Asia extended much farther to the east than it does. These last two
assumptions led Columbus to think he had reached Asia when he had actually
reached the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea in 1492.

show major roads as straight lines with no attempt to show true course or proper
scale. But the distances between places were written in, which made the maps
very practical.
Early maps of a sort were
developed by medieval
Christians. These maps
are more like guidebooks
and give directions and
information about places
and distances that would
be useful for pilgrims
Old map of the Holy Land.
traveling between Europe
and the Holy Land. The maps included locations of hostels and places for
changing horses and donkeys.
Early mariners created sailing books giving sailing instructions based on the
directions of the wind rose. By the twelfth century, sailing instructions to every
port throughout the entire Mediterranean were available. These directions read
like modern sailing directions—they could tell people which direction to follow
by letting them know which wind to sail with, and how long they should be on

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ACTIVITY
S

Understanding Latitude
Lines of latitude have different lengths so distances between degrees are
different. For instance, at the equator, which is 0 degrees latitude, there are
about 70 land miles in one degree (25,000 miles divided by 360 degrees).
Just imagine how important it was to understand this information if you were
heading out on an ocean exploration. Using the information given on the
following chart, determine the distances between the points on each line of
latitude. You’re given the number of degrees that separates each point. For
example, points A–B on latitude 60° = 35 miles x 50 degrees = 1,750 miles.

Latitude Land Miles in 1 degree

Equator or 0° 70 90°N—North Pole
80°
10°N or S 69 70°
60° A 50° B
20°N or S 65 • •
50°
30°N or S 60 40° C
•
89° D
•
30°
40°N or S 53 20° E
•
94° F
•
10°
50°N or S 45 G 135° equator H
0° • •
I 67° J
60°N or S 35 10° • •
20°
70°N or S 24 30°
K
•
59° L
•
40°
80°N or S 12 M 125° M
50° • •
60°
O 48° P
70° • •
80°

90°S—South Pole

Points Miles
For Example: A – B 35 x 60 = 2100
the water in order to reach their destination. Sometimes really, really old maps
have wonderfully drawn pictures of men’s heads with their cheeks puffed out
blowing in a particular direction. These were the heads of the figures of the
named winds—the same named winds that show up on the wind rose.
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Around the turn of the fourteenth century, the first accurate coastal sailing
charts—called portolan charts—were developed. These probably began as
maps drawn from the written descriptions found in pilot books, which were
known as portolani in
Italian (hence the name
portolan). Pilot books
were sailing and harbor
guides summarizing—in
words—the accumulated
knowledge of generations
of sailors.
Portolans were oriented
north and included a
wind rose that looked a

Ptolemy’s map showing 12 winds.

lot like a compass. A wind
rose was divided into
eight equal directional points representing the primary wind directions, which
corresponded to N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, and NW. All sailors knew their winds.
With the development of the compass, a network of rhumb lines were added.
These lines crisscrossed all major bodies of water and radiated from a number of
wind roses spread about the map. A sailor would set his course on one or several
of these lines until he reached landfall.
In 1375 the Catalan Atlas, which gathered information from a number of
portolans and placed them on six maps, was published. This atlas showed the
extent of the known world and combined the detail and accuracy of portolan
charts with the latest scientific information. Unlike other portolans, inland
towns and rivers were drawn on these atlas maps. For the first time, maps were
being drawn to be useful to all travelers.

Words to know
rhumb lines: constant course lines.
45
What is a portolan chart?
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Tools of Navigation W E

The Age of Discovery and the Great Explorers

E xplora
The mid- to late-fifteenth century was an amazing time for European exploration.
Someone once called exploration “planned discovery” and that phrase fits well.
t

io
Portuguese seamen were sailing to the Atlantic island groups—the
ry Azores,

n is pl
Madeiras, and the Canaries—and then heading down the West African coast. The

isc ve
Portuguese were being sent out by Prince Henry the Navigator, who organized

o
and encouraged expeditions. Prince Henry, who was not a ruler in Portugal
a
because he was a younger son, had the time to pursue his nn
ed d
fascination with exploration. He was determined to
find a sea route to Asia and the kinds of valuable
goods written about by Marco Polo.
By this point, Ptolemy’s Geography had been
rediscovered by Europeans, which renewed
discussion about the circumference of the earth.
As the Portuguese seaman made their way down
Cape of Good Hope the coast of West Africa, they completed detailed
charts. They also included reasonably accurate

A sea route from Portugal to Asia!

latitudes on their charts because they knew how to
determine latitude using the North Star.
In the latter part of the century, Bartholomew Dias rounded the tip of Africa,
thereby discovering the Cape of Good Hope. A decade later, in 1498, Vasco da
Gama sailed from the Cape Verde Islands around the Cape of Good Hope and
reached the western coast of India. A sea route to Asia had been found! Da
Gama was an amazingly good sailor and the charts he made show a high degree
of accuracy.

Christopher Columbus (1451–1506)

“In fourteen hundred and ninety-two,
Columbus sailed the ocean blue”—who
among us doesn’t know this rhyme
Bahamian stamps depicting discovery by Columbus.
from about the age of four?
When Columbus set sail for Asia
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Some Age of Exploration Explorers

1487—Bartholomew Dias, Portuguese, discovers the southern tip of Africa, the
Cape of Good Hope.
1492 — Christopher Columbus, Italian, stumbles upon the
West Indies thinking he’s reached India.
1497— John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), Italian, searches for
the Northwest Passage, a waterway across North
America, and discovers Newfoundland.
1497–1499— Vasco da Gama, Portuguese, discovers an ocean Christopher Columbus

route from Portugal to India.

1502—Amerigo Vespucci, Italian, returns from explorations in the
New World and gets two continents named after him.
1513—Juan Ponce de León, Spanish, searches for the Fountain
of Youth in Florida.
1519–1522—Ferdinand Magellan,
Portuguese, and his
crew sail around the
Ponce de León Magellan’s route
world.
1534—Jacques Cartier, French, discovers the St. Lawrence River and the Great
Lakes.
1539–1542—Hernando de Soto, Spanish, explores the southeastern United
States.
1540—Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, Spanish, explores the
southwestern United States and his expedition discovers
the Grand Canyon.
1577—Sir Francis Drake becomes the first Englishman to sail
around the world.

Sir Francis Drake

47
What European explorer discovered the Grand Canyon?
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Tools of Navigation W E

S
Rumor
s of dra
gons an
d monst
ers rais
(which was where he really wanted
Inqui
e odds
against
return.

to go when the West Indies got in the Columbu rer

way), he was armed with a whole set Onlook s Set Sail some ti
me in th

for Orien
e year
ers Con 1492

Asia or
fused—
Headin
g West t
of false navigational assumptions.
Asia
or Bust
Bust to Get to
Lorem ips
the Ea st???
Like Ptolemy, Columbus believed two
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things that were wrong: first, that the (Artist’s Re
lutpat. Ut
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circumference of the earth was much smaller ex ea co
mm
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l eum iriu
nis l ut aliquip
re dolor in Duis
hendre
than it really was, and, second, that the east-west length of
Eurasia (the continents of Europe and Asia together) was much larger than it
really was. The effect of these two misperceptions was that Columbus believed
he had to cover less than 3,000 miles of open ocean in order to reach Asia (when
in actuality, Japan lies over 9,000 miles further away—as the crow flies!).

Who Really Discovered America?

Why is our country named after Amerigo Vespucci, who very few people have
ever heard of, rather than Christopher Columbus? Vespucci (1454–1512) was
an Italian explorer who was the first person to realize that the Americas were
separate from the continent of Asia. He sailed in search of a passage to India in
1499, seven years after Columbus first landed in the West Indies. Vespucci made
two voyages between 1499 and 1502 and possibly a third one in 1503.
But the big breakthrough came on Vespucci’s second trip. This was the
realization that what he was looking at was not India at all, but an entirely new
continent. He verified this by following the coast of South
America to within 400 miles of Tierra del Fuego. Columbus
found the New World, but Vespucci was the one who recognized
that it was a new world.
For many years, controversy surrounded Vespucci. Many
people thought he was a fraud who never made the trips he
claimed to have made. There were no journals, logs, or maps of
the journeys, but he did write two letters that have survived. Amerigo Vespucci

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He compounded his problems by underestimating the distance of a degree of

longitude at the equator. As a result, he further underestimated the distance he
would need to sail on his planned course at 28 degrees latitude. (Remember that
the lines of longitude curve toward each other as they get further away from 0
degrees latitude—the equator).
Coincidentally, the calculations Columbus made to determine the distance
to Asia were pretty close to the distance he actually covered when he reached
the West Indies, making the
mistaken belief that he had
reached Asia quite believable
after all.
What’s amazing is that
Columbus had the nerve to sail
off into the unknown in the
first place. Mariners up to that
point were very accustomed to
The West Indies and the Caribbean Sea.
sailing with portolans, which
were detailed maps of the coasts. There was a great fear of the unknown—for
example, there were some who thought dragons and sea monsters lived beyond
the horizon—and portolans provided a kind of security by presenting the known
world. Columbus sailed west based on a theory that he would find landfall
at a particular place and distance. Even though his theory was based on false
assumptions, it was a great leap for him, in particular, and for oceanic exploration
in general when he set sail and eventually landed in the New World.
Meanwhile, at about the same time that Columbus set sail and landed in the
New World, Spanish and Portuguese mariners began exploring the coast of South
America. Amerigo Vespucci completed three voyages that reconnoitered the
coast of Brazil. Vespucci was immortalized on a map made in 1507 that depicted
the coastline from Newfoundland to Argentina and had the word “America”
written across Brazil. By the mid-sixteenth century, maps were showing both
North and South America.

49
Who was America named after?
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Tools of Navigation W E

Astrolabe
The astrolabe was invented by the Greeks and was used up through the Middle
Ages to determine latitude. An astrolabe measured the angle, or the altitude,
between the zenith (the point directly overhead) and a celestial body (like the
North Star). A disc was calibrated, or marked off, in degrees, and a movable arm
was attached at the center of the disc. Christopher Columbus used an astrolabe,
as did Ferdinand Magellan, when they were on their historic voyages. Arab
travelers used astrolabes to navigate in the desert, which was like an ocean of
sand with no visible landmarks.
An inherent problem with using an astrolabe was determining the
zenith—there was no star marking the point directly overhead. Also,
astrolabes were difficult to use on a rolling, pitching ship, but when
they were taken ashore, they were invaluable in determining
approximate latitude.

Ferdinand Magellan (1480–1521)

In 1519, Magellan set off in search of a western route to Asia. He had studied
all available maps and had determined that it might be possible to sail around
South America. What he didn’t know was how unbelievably large the Pacific
Ocean was going to be. Like Columbus, he believed Ptolemy’s numbers about
the circumference of the earth, which grossly underestimated the distance he was
going to have to travel.
He did discover the strait that today bears his name—
the Strait of Magellan—as he made his way around
the southern end of South America. This is perhaps
the most treacherous stretch of water in the world.
As ocean currents come down both the east and west
coasts of South America, they converge and create a
seething cauldron of waves, howling winds, and fierce
weather. The eastern entrance of the strait is calm but
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soon the water gets funneled through

a channel that separates mainland
South America from the large island of
Tierra del Fuego (named “land of fire”
by Magellan because as they passed
through the strait, they were amazed
by the fires the native people lit on the

i e rr a d
shores and the surrounding hills).
T
As he headed out of the strait,

el
Magellan faced the vast Pacific Ocean
where he managed to miss most of the island chains before reaching Guam four

Fu e g o —
e
months later. Magellan guided his ships by compass and celestial navigation

Fi r
alone, setting his bearing and then staying remarkably true to course. The intrepid
navigator finally reached the Philippines where he was killed while trying to

of
mediate a skirmish between two warring native groups. Lla d
Magellan’s expedition made its way home via the Indian Ocean and then
Cape of Good Hope. Out of five ships that initially set sail, only one made
it home and only 35 of
the original 280 men
survived the three-year
voyage.
This historic voyage—
the first circumnaviga-
tion of the earth—proved
that the earth was round
and could be sailed around. This had a tremendous and immediate impact on
mapmaking. As new lands were discovered and explored, maps were updated
to represent the new knowledge about the earth.

Gerardus Mercator (1512–1594)

A gifted mapmaker born in Flanders (now Belgium), Mercator spent his life
recording the great discoveries of the sixteenth century. He was determined to
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ACTIVITY
Make a Simple Astrolabe
An astrolabe helped explorers find their latitude by measuring angles using the
stars as reference points.
Supplies:
• Thread, protractor, paper clip, and tape
• Long straw or paper rolled into a ¼-inch tube
• Small notebook and pencil

1 35
45 90
Instructions:
• Tie a thread around the middle of the flat side of
the protractor leaving about an 8-inch length.
• Tie the paper clip to the long end of the thread.
• Tape the flat edge of the protractor to the length of the straw.
• Go outside at night when there are lots of stars out.
• Identify the North Star (see page 10).
• Look at the North Star through your straw, making sure the thread with the
paperclip weight is hanging free.
• Hold the thread in place against the protractor after you locate the North Star.
• Take it down from your eye and read the degrees on the protractor where the
thread crosses. (Read the inner set of numbers, from 0 to 90 degrees.) This number
is the zenith angle. To find the altitude angle, subtract the zenith angle from 90
degrees. This number will be the same as, or very close to, your latitude.
• Write down this number in your notebook.
• Take this reading several more times, noting the degrees in your notebook
each time, to check for accuracy.
• Check your latitude against an atlas or a map.

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create a world map in 1569 that portrayed an accurate picture

What explorer’s expedition made the first circumnavigation of the globe?

of the spherical globe on a flat surface. He envisioned his map
being useful for scholars, travelers, and seafarers.
Although a globe is the best way to show the relative
positions of places, it was impossible to create a globe that
could fit in the ship’s cabin and provide the kind of detail
necessary for navigation. Flat maps, on the other hand, are
portable and can show a great deal of detail.
Mercator’s most significant contribution to mapmaking—the one we
remember him for—was his projection. He was determined to create a map
where a navigator could draw a straight line between two points and determine
the constant course he must steer in sailing between those points. These rhumb
lines had been showing up on portolan charts for years but were only effective
for plotting short courses, because the curve of the earth would throw the course
line off. Mercator knew that the rhumb line had to be a long curved line. But
how do you convert that to an easily plotted straight line on a map?
Mercator figured out that in order to straighten the rhumb line, he had to
distort the map as it got further away from the equator. He spread the parallels

Mercator World Map.

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(the lines of latitude) at the same

meridian
proportion as he spread the meridians

prime
(lines of longitude). For example, if
equator
at any place on the map a minute of C B A C B A

longitude is spread to twice its value

on the earth, then the corresponding
minute of latitude is also spread to
twice its value. All the lines of latitude
and longitude are at right angles to one another (whereas in reality, the meridians
would merge at the poles). This, basically, was the distortion formula for the
Mercator projection.
What did this do to features on the map? Look at a map of the earth that’s
been flattened by Mercator’s projection. Look at the size of Greenland. It looks
huge! In reality, South America is nine times the size of Greenland. See if that
proportion holds on the map you’re looking at.
But Mercator’s map projection worked. A navigator could plot a straight-
line course to a distant land Greenland
on Mercator’s map. Although
it would take a century before
navigators would come to rely South America
on maps projected this way,
they would eventually become
invaluable to ocean shipping.
Over the years, cartographers have come up with various ways to project the
sphere of the earth onto paper and each of these maps is used for very specific
purposes. As you can imagine, each map projection has its own weakness as
well because no single projection can accurately portray area, shape, scale, and
direction.
area, shape, scale, and direction
Map projections come in two broad categories: conformal and equal-area.
Conformal maps are preferred by navigators and engineers because they preserve
the shapes of the small parts of the mapped surface even though they cannot

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c onfor
S

preserve the shape of an especially large country or continent.

m
A conformal map is useful for those trying to find the
m

al
a
shortest route between two points. A Mercator projection is a

a
-are

ps
conformal map (remember what happened to Greenland).

and
An equal-area map is used when a standard scale is
more important than correct shape. These are preferred
equal
Example of a conformal map.
by scientists and geographers. On these maps, for
example, one square centimeter on the map would
equal the same number of kilometers on the map
no matter where you are. Topographic maps are
equal-area maps. The downside of an equal-area
Example of a equal-area map. map is that it distorts shapes and distances.

How to Measure Longitude: the Chronometer

The marine chronometer (a sea clock) was the first precise
instrument to figure out distance between two locations. How
can a person figure out distance by measuring time?
When the chronometer was invented by the English
clockmaker John Harrison in the late eighteenth
century, astronomers and mapmakers had already
calculated the size of the surface of the earth.
This meant that it should be possible to figure out
the distance between two locations on either land
or sea, but in order to do that navigators needed
Chronometer known as H-1.
something that would keep absolutely accurate The first attempt by John Harrison.

Words to know
conformal map: preserves both the angles and shapes of small figures.
equal-area map: the scale remains the same anywhere on the map.
chronometer: a very accurate portable clock used to determine longitude.
International Date Line: an imaginary north-south line at approximately 180 degrees in
the Pacific Ocean; where each calendar day begins.
Greenwich mean time: the local time at 0 degrees longitude, the prime meridian.
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Measuring Distance
Distance was measured from the prime meridian located at Greenwich,
England. This was also the starting place for measuring time. Remember that a
traveler moving west from the prime meridian goes back in time (San Francisco,
California, is eight hours earlier than London, England) and moving east from
the prime meridian goes ahead in time (Osaka, Japan, is nine hours later than
London, England). At the International Date Line, the date changes so travelers
don’t gain or lose a day.
There are 24 hours in the day—the earth turns on its axis 360 degrees, or in
a complete circle, every 24 hours (and there are 360 degrees in a circle)—and
if we divide 360 into 24 parts we find that the earth
LETE CIRCLE—360 D
OMP
turns east toward the sun 15 degrees every hour, N—
1C EGR
EE
SI
IO N
AT
which corresponds to the lines of longitude

OT

24
R

HO
’S

UR
TH
drawn on many maps. For example, when the

S
EAR

sun “passes the meridian” at noon, we only

need to check Greenwich mean time. If it is 3
pm in Greenwich it means it was noon three
hours ago in Greenwich. Therefore we know
we are at longitude 15 degrees x 3 hours = 45
degrees west.
Here’s the cool part: Since San Francisco is eight
hours from London and we know that eight hours represents one-third of twenty-
four hours we can assume that the distance from San Francisco to London (5,360
miles or 8,626 kilometers) is equal to one-third the distance around the earth at
that latitude. London’s latitude is 51°32’N and San Francisco’s is 37°37’N so
you have to do a little math to figure the distance out exactly. Also remember
there’s a difference between nautical and statute or land miles (multiply a land
mile by 1.15 to get a nautical mile).

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What is the difference between a conformal map and an equal-area map?
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time. Remember, distance could be calculated by multiplying

the speed of the ship by time traveled. If the time was
measured inaccurately, the calculation of distance
could be way off.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the
“problem of longitude” assumed great strategic
importance and occupied some of the best scientific
minds. Why was this so important? Because France,
Holland, and Britain were all competing for lands
discovered during exploration and if a country
H-4 chronometer designed by Harrison.
was going to claim land, it had to be able to
accurately describe where it was in geographic terms—by latitude and longitude.
In 1714 Britain announced a prize of 20,000 pounds—a huge sum of money in
those days—for a reliable solution to determining longitude,
and John Harrison, a British clockmaker, spent
er
ry...

r
treasu

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iaments

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parl

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In
missi
£20,000 year 17
14
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chronometers—or very accurate clocks—of a ke r Stu ns Scientis
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British Clo f Longitude!”
1735 and 1739, though accurate, were bulky and o
“Problem of Longitude” teMllosney”
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While other clocks of that time operated on flat, level surfaces because they
used pendulums, Harrison constructed his chronometer using a coiled spring
to e ” the pendulum. This allowed the clock to keep on ticking as it rolled
replace
d
from side-to-side and even while upside down! Harrison also discovered that if
ongitu

he made his chronometer from all brass parts that required no oil, his timepiece
was resistant to temperature and humidity changes. This remarkable clock lost
only a second or two per month.
Captain James Cook was the first navigator to use a marine chronometer as he
f l

“p accurately charted parts of the Pacific Ocean’s coastline, including the islands of
roblem o
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New Zealand and Tahiti. By the early nineteenth century the British government
was making sure every government ship had a marine chronometer on board and
by 1850 each British naval ship carried three chronometers—one was permanently
set to Greenwich mean time, one was set to the local time, and one was to make
sure the ship always had the correct time even if one timepiece broke.

Captain James Cook (1728–1779)

Captain Cook was a remarkable explorer and navigator
during the second half of the eighteenth century. Because
he was born into a poor farming family in North Yorkshire,
England, Cook’s many accomplishments seem even more
remarkable for a day and age when wealthy men were much
more likely to attain positions of power and authority.
Captain James Cook.
He began his sea career as a teenager when he worked
on ships carrying coal up and down the east coast of England. Sailing these
treacherous waters provided Cook with invaluable experience in practical
navigation. He joined the Royal Navy in 1755 and qualified to be a navigator
within a couple of years. He spent the years after the Seven Years War charting the
coast of Newfoundland, which gave him a practical grounding in the technical
skills needed to be an effective explorer.
First Voyage
1768–1771

Second Voyage
1772–1775

Third Voyage
1776–1779
EQUATOR
Homeward
Voyage of Crew

ANTARCTIC CIRCLE

Map of the Pacific showing the routes of Cook’s three voyages.

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Captain Cook made three Pacific voyages. He was sent to Tahiti, a little-
known South Seas island, in 1768 to make astronomical observations about the
transit of the planet Venus. While he was there, he was also instructed to search
for Terra Australis Incognita, the great southern continent. Up to this point,
navigators and mapmakers had no idea what Antarctica looked like—but they
knew some landmass lay over the South Pole. The Dutch had touched upon
what we call Australia, which they called New Holland, but details about it
were murky, at best.
Terra Australis Incognita
From Tahiti, Cook sailed south to 40 degrees south where he turned west and
sailed to New Zealand. He charted the New Zealand coasts and proved that
they were not part of a great southern continent. He then charted the eastern and
northern parts of New Holland, narrowly escaping from being slammed onto the
Great Barrier Reef. By the time Cook
returned to England, he had mapped
more than 5,000 miles of previously
unknown coastline in the Pacific.
Cook carried John Harrison’s
famous Number 4 marine chronometer
on his second voyage, allowing Cook
Cook nearing Terra Australis Incognita, or Antarctica. to accurately determine his longitude
while at sea. This was a “test drive”
NeHe iti,
Tah
for the newly invented marine instrument and it performed superbly. w again Ze
a
sailed for Tahiti and New Zealand and mapped Easter Island, the Marquesas
Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu. Many of these islands were known but they were la
nd
not mapped. What Cook did in these two Pacific voyages was tog
meticulously
a on ,a
, Ea r I sl a
T
chart and map—giving us the first modern map of the South Pacific.
,

nd
Islands

During several months of Cook’s final Pacific voyage (1776–1780) he mapped

ste

the northwest coast of America—from Vancouver Island to the Bering Strait—

Van

in an attempt to find a northwest water passage that would allow Europeans u at u

to sail more or less straight to Asia without having to round the tip of South
s
sa

America. William Bligh, of H.M.S. Bounty fame, served as a navigator on Cook’s

d,
the ue
Marq
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last voyage. Cook never did find a navigable northwest passage but once again
did a remarkably accurate job of mapping the coastline.
Cook did discover the Hawaiian Islands (which he named the Sandwich
Islands) and the northern Polynesian islands—previously unknown island
groups to Europeans—on his way to the northwest coast of America on this last
voyage. When he returned to Hawaii, trouble was brewing. Some of the native
people believed Cook to be a god—and Cook didn’t do anything to make them
think otherwise. Cook set sail and left the harbor on the Big Island of Hawaii.
Everything would have been fine, but he had to return to make repairs to his
ship. When the native people saw Cook had come back, some of them became
very angry because they realized that Cook was not a god, but rather just a
man with problems with his ship. Cook was killed in a skirmish on the beach.
The native people took his body and there are numerous stories about where
his body—or parts of his body—finally ended up.
During Cook’s remarkable career, he sailed over 200,000 miles—roughly
equivalent to circling the equator eight times or flying to the moon. He redrew

What We Learned From Captain Cook

Cook’s voyages were not only to map but to further our understanding of
the natural world. He kept extensive journals of his voyages, noting and
naming the many plants and animals collected from exotic places. His first
voyage on the ship Endeavor was to witness the transit of Venus and to make
astronomical observations. On all of his voyages he
insisted that his crew eat citrus fruit, or food rich
in vitamin C, as a way to combat scurvy, which
was a horrible disease that afflicted people on
long sea voyages. Many were saved from wretched deaths by Cook’s
insistence on serving citrus fruit. Have you ever heard of
British sailors being referred to as “limeys?” That’s
from eating limes or other citrus fruit.

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the map of the world and embarked on the first recognized “scientific” journey.
Cook expanded our knowledge of the geographic world, and his shipmates—
including artists, naturalists, and astronomers—made observations and collected
specimens, greatly expanding our knowledge of the natural world.

Sextant
In 1731, Thomas Godfrey and John Hadley independently invented the reflecting
quadrant, a precursor to the sextant, and in 1757, John Campbell invented the
sextant. Royal Naval Captain John Campbell’s sextant could measure both
longitude and latitude. The sextant was a sophisticated device for measuring the
angle between two objects. It’s made up of an eyepiece, two mirrors, a sixth of
a circle (hence the name), and a movable arm. Sounds complicated but it’s not.
The objective is to be able to see the sun superimposed on the horizon, which
happens when the sun and horizon are lined up in the mirrors. Then all the
navigator did was read the measurement on the calibrated circle. This is called
“shooting the sun.”
This navigational instrument was small and easy to use on a rolling ship
and to a gifted navigator like Captain Cook, it was an invaluable piece
of equipment. The sextant was a wonderful navigational tool
because of its accuracy. It can measure an angle
to the nearest ten seconds of a degree, which could
tell the navigator where he was within one or
two miles. Sextants were only really made obsolete by
modern navigational equipment. You’ve probably
seen sextants being used in movies like Master
and Commander.

Words to know
sextant: an instrument used to measure how high the sun is above the horizon. The angle
and the time it is measured can be used to calculate latitude.
shooting the sun: using a sextant.
61
Name some citrus fruits.
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Latitude and Longitude

Knowing latitude and longitude is a simple way to identify location. Navigators
talk about their north-south position using parallels of Lines of Latitude

latitude—the lines running across the map, chart, or globe, North

80°
60°
from left to right, west to east. A latitude coordinate tells 40°

how far north or south you are from the equator, 20°
Equator 0°
the line that goes around the middle of the 20°
40°
globe dividing it into the Northern and Southern 60°
80°
Hemispheres. A longitude coordinate tells how far east South

or west you are from the prime meridian,

Lines of Longitude
Prime Meridian—0° longitude
the line of longitude that runs through Greenwich,
20°W 20°E
40°W 40°E England. Lines of longitude, which are also called
60°W 60°E
meridians, run north and south on a map and converge
Equator
at the poles.
Distance is written in terms of degrees. The equator lies
at 0 degrees and the parallels of latitude north of the equator
are identified as north, and those south of the equator are identified as
south. The North Pole lies at latitude 90 degrees north, and the South Pole at
90 degrees south. The prime meridian lies at 0 degrees longitude. Meridians of
longitude east of the prime meridian are designated as east, and those west of the
prime meridian are identified as west.
Where longitude 180 degrees west meets longitude 180 degrees east in the
Pacific Ocean is the International Date Line, the place where the date actually
changes. Fortunately the International Date Line doesn’t go through any
islands—it zigs and zags along the 180-degree meridian—otherwise for people
living on one side of the date line it would be today, and for their neighbors
living on the other side it would be tomorrow, which could get very confusing.
Without the International Date Line, travelers going westward would discover

62
Which ocean did Captain Cook explore and chart?
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that when they returned home, they had spent one more day on their vacation
than they thought, even though they had kept careful tally of the days. This
happened to Magellan’s crew after their first circumnavigation of the globe.
Likewise, a person traveling eastward would find that one fewer day had elapsed
than he or she had recorded, as happened to Phileas Fogg in Around the World
in Eighty Days by Jules Verne.
Each degree of latitude and longitude is divided into 60 minutes, and each
minute is further divided into 60 seconds (think of how time is divided and
you’ll never forget this). Navigators measure distance in nautical miles. One
nautical mile equals one minute of one degree and has been set at 6,080 feet. So
one degree of latitude or longitude equals 60 nautical miles (or 70 land miles).
Any location on earth is described by two numbers—its latitude and its
longitude. If a ship’s captain wants to specify position on a map, these are the
“coordinates” they would use. Think of position coordinates like you think of
street addresses. When position coordinates are given, it’s just a way to pinpoint
a place by identifying where lines of longitude and latitude intersect. This can
be particularly helpful in the middle of the ocean where there are no visible
landmarks. Coordinates are always read by
stating the latitude first and the longitude
second. One very famous set of position
coordinates is latitude 41 degrees 33 minutes
north, longitude 50 degrees 01 minute west.
On April 14, 1912, this is where the ocean
liner Titanic struck an iceberg in the northern
Atlantic Ocean and quickly sank.

Words to know
coordinates: numbers that identify a position. Central Park in New York City is latitude
40°47’N, longitude 73°58’W.
63
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ACTIVITY
S

Measure Your Local Time

In order to properly determine longitude, explorers had to know the local time.
Make a sort of sun dial with this activity to determine noon.

Supplies:
• One three-foot-long pole that you can hammer into the ground
• 15-inch-long string with a weight tied to one end
• Nine scraps of paper
• Nine pencils or sticks
• Yardstick or tape measure
• Protractor
• Notebook
• Pencil

Instructions:
• Choose a sunny location on a flat spot of
ground—beware of shadows from buildings
and trees.

• Set up the pole so that it is vertical. Check this by

using your string as a plumb line—it will hang
straight down—and align your pole with the
string as
string. Hammer the pole firmly into the ground plumb line

so it will not move during the day.

• Measure the height of the pole and record that

in your notebook.

• Label your scraps of paper with observation times making symmetrical

64
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W E Chapter Three: The World Expands

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observations around noon. Remember

that daylight savings will delay local
noon by one hour. Suggested intervals
might be: 10:00, 11:00, 11:20, 11:40,
12:00, 12:20, 12:40, 1:00, 2:00.

• At the observation time, take the scrap

of paper with the time written on it,
poke the pencil through it and push it
End of stick’s shadow into the ground so that the point of the
pole’s shadow lines up with the hole
where the pencil goes through the
paper. Do this at each observation
with a new paper and pencil.

• Measure the length of the shadow from the base of the pole to the pencil and
record this number next to the time.

• Measure the angle between the shadow and the previously recorded position.
Do this by using your string and stretching it from the pole to the
previous pencil and then measuring the angle
with a protractor. Record this in your notebook.

• Determine the time when the sun was

record this angle

highest—this is local noon. (Hint: A shadow
will be shortest at noon.) Is this number
different from what the clock says?
Also, the shadow at local noon
0 135
45
90
135
45

points to geographic north.

Stretch string from pole to previous pencil

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ACTIVITY
Circumnavigate the Globe
In this activity, you’ll practice measurement and recording latitude and longitude on a
global scale! And you’ll also test your basic knowledge of geography.
Supplies:
• World map or atlas with a scale
• Piece of string for measuring distances

Instructions:
• Begin and end your journey at Greenwich, England
• Circumnavigate the globe once.
• Visit every checkpoint destination as described in the clues.
• Visit the checkpoints in order (no backtracking).
• Record the name of the checkpoint, the distance traveled from point to point, and the
latitude and longitude of each checkpoint.

Checkpoint Destination Latitude and Longitude Estimated Distance

1. Greenwich, England lat 51°29’N, long 0°00’W 0 miles
2. See glaciers and volcanoes on this one little island in the North Atlantic.
3. Visit the capital of the United States.
4. Make a stop at an island nation once famous for premium cigars.
5. Visit an island made famous by Charles Darwin and the voyage of the Beagle (hint:
be sure to travel through the Panama Canal).
6. Visit a group of islands that lie “midway” across the Pacific Ocean.
7. Stop at the capital of the Philippines.
8. Drop anchor in a city in Western Australia that’s named after a city in Scotland.
9. Sail on to the large island nation off the east coast of Africa.
10. Make a stop at the city in Africa that has a population of jackass penguins.
11. Rest at an island group whose name includes the word for “green” in Spanish.
12. Return to home port.
What was the total distance traveled? Now convert statute miles to nautical miles (divide
by 1.1508)
66
 Land Exploration
Jungle, Mountain, and Desert Terrain, and
the Mapping of the American West

P eople headed overland for many of the

same reasons they headed out onto the
open sea. Some were thrilled by the
excitement of exploration, some were searching
for riches that might lie in far-off lands, some Meet Lewis and Clark
were looking for the best route to get from here
Improve your sense of
to there, and some were searching for new
direction
places to live. Typically, exploration would be
financed by a government or company (like the Map your school or
Dutch East India Company) that stood to gain backyard
financially by whatever was discovered.
Follow the Oregon
Try to imagine what some of the problems in Trail
navigating on land might be. We’ll take a quick
peek at what explorers ran into as they tried to
j u ng
make their way through the jungles, deserts, l
and mountains.
es

n
ai s
,d

Jungles
ount

ese

Jungles or rain forests cover vast areas of the

tropics near the equator. They’re characterized
rt
m

,a
s

67
nd
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Tools of Navigation W E

as rainy, humid regions with

layers of tangled, impenetrable
vegetation (think about the
landscape in any Tarzan or George
of the Jungle movies you’ve seen)—
people often have to hack their
way through the undergrowth
with machetes. When we think
of jungle animals, we often think
of the large mammals—like lions, Dense foliage of a jungle.

tigers, and monkeys—but there are also creatures like snakes, alligators,
and birds that add to the overall ambience of the place. And don’t forget
the many, many species of insects that can carry diseases like malaria,
yellow fever, and cholera.
About the only way to really navigate in a jungle is by using
the method known as dead reckoning—which means you have
some idea of where you’re going and how long it will take you
to get there. With a map, a compass, and the knowledge of paces (how fast you
can move through any kind of terrain and the distance you can then cover), it’s
possible to make your way through the jungle. Early jungle explorers would take
advantage of trails created by animals—trails that often led to and from water—
and if they got lost, they would follow a stream or river downstream because it
would inevitably lead to a settlement or flow into a bigger river or the ocean.

Deserts
Navigating across a desert had its own set of
problems. Think about it—the land is always
shifting as the sand moves with the wind.
About 5 percent of the earth’s surface is
covered by deserts—which are characterized
by very little or no rainfall—including the big
Desert dunes.
68
Where do trails created by animals in the jungle typically go?
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W E Chapter Four: Land Exploration

hara Deser
S

a
ones we’ve all heard about: the Sahara Desert in Africa Sand the Gobi Desert in
t
Mongolia. Today, GPS makes desert travel much easier and has made the desert

in
Monsatellites,
accessible to many people. But before the invention of global positioning g

Africa an
ol
nomadic people like the Arab Bedouins were able to travel safely through a most

e ser t i n

ia
inhospitable landscape.
How did they do this? Nomadic navigators were very familiar with the
position of the stars at night and they knew where the other stars were, relative d

D
to the North Star. During the day, they could determine direction by the shadows th
e Gobi
cast by the sun (this is sometimes called a sun compass). They also learned how
to read the signs of the winds. Like the prevailing winds in the Mediterranean
Sea, there are also prevailing winds associated with seasons in a desert. Learning
to read the patterns of the dunes and rock
erosion due to prevailing winds could
give valuable clues to direction.
Judging distances in a desert becomes
very problematic because there are few
reference points between the traveler
and the horizon. The tendency is to think
things are much closer than they really
are (the dry desert air makes objects appear closer), so a good rule of thumb for
inexperienced desert navigators is to multiply the distance it appears by a factor
of three.
What is the most critical thing for all living
things trying to survive in a desert? Water. Desert
navigators often used camels for transportation
because their bodies knew how to use water
wisely. Navigators also learned to follow animal
tracks and the flight paths of birds because these
could eventually lead to oases and water.
An oasis in the desert.

Words to know
desert: an area covered by sand characterized by very little or no rainfall.
69
Why is it hard to judge distance in the desert?
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Basic Geographic Terms

As we head on to land exploration, navigation, and map reading we need to
understand some basic geographical terms. Geography vocabulary is important
because many place names throughout the world include geographical terms (for
example, Bering Strait, English Channel, the Gulf of Mexico, and Cape Cod).

Bay or Gulf—part of an ocean, sea, or lake that extends inland.

Bays are generally smaller than gulfs.
Beach—the sandy place where the water meets the land.
Canyon—a deep cut in the earth’s surface through which
water often flows.
Cape—a piece of land, generally pointed but often rounded,
that juts into a body of water. Capes resemble peninsulas, but
are often smaller.
Cliff—land that rises almost straight up from water or the
earth’s surface.
Delta—build-up of sediment at the mouth of a river where it
enters a larger body of water.
Downstream—direction in which a river flows.
Dunes—hills or ridges of sand found on beaches
and in deserts.
Isthmus—a narrow strip of land that connects
two larger pieces of land.
Lake—a body of water surrounded by land.
Left bank—bank of a river or stream that is on one’s left
when facing downstream.
Marsh—soft, wet land with grass-like vegetation.
Mesa—flat-topped hill with steep sides.

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W E Chapter Four: Land Exploration

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Mountain range—a series of mountains.

Pass—a low place through mountains or hills that allows
for passage of people or vehicles.
Peak—the top of a mountain, usually pointed.
Peninsula—land that has three sides and juts into a body
of water such as an ocean, sea, or lake.
Plain—a large, treeless, and fairly level area of land; generally flat, but may
have low hills.
Plateau—a large, elevated area of land that is generally flat; may have some
hills.
Pond—small body of water surrounded by land;
usually smaller than a lake.
Rapids—place in a stream or river that has
obstacles, such as rocks, over which water flows.
Right bank—bank of a river or stream that is on
one’s right when facing downstream.
River—natural and considerable water flow.
Slope—upward/downward slant on the side of a mountain.
Straits or Channels—narrow water passages between two pieces of land.
Stream—small, usually narrow, flow of water over the earth’s surface.
Swamp—wet, spongy land with clumps of grass; some parts covered by water;
some trees.
Trail to pass—the route one would follow to go
through a pass.
Valley—a level area of land with upward slopes
on each side; has the appearance of a V.
Volcano—cone-shaped hill or mountain with a
hollow center from which lava and smoke flow.

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ACTIVITY
SE ➯ S ➯ SW N ➯ NE ➯ E ➯ SE ➯ S ➯ SW ➯ W ➯ NW ➯ N ➯ N

E ➯ E ➯ SE ➯ S ➯ SW ➯ W ➯ NW ➯ N ➯ NE ➯ E ➯ SE ➯
N ➯ NE ➯ E ➯ SE ➯ S ➯ SW ➯ W ➯ NW ➯ N ➯ NE ➯ E ➯

Improve Your Sense of Direction

0°N, 360°N
Label the coordinates on the compass using both directions and N
numbers. Remember that a compass is divided into 360 degrees.
North is both 0 degrees and 360 degrees. The numbers increase
clockwise.

Start

On the maze, write the direction

you’re traveling as indicated
by the arrows. By the end of
this exercise, compass directions
should be second nature to you.

Start

End
S ➯ SW ➯ W ➯ NW ➯ N ➯ NE ➯ E ➯ SE ➯ S ➯ SW ➯ W ➯ NW ➯

Mountains
Mountains tend to be grouped in ranges—like the Rocky Mountains in the
u tWest n
Mo
American ai or the Appalachian Mountains in the Eastern United States—
n
nor in a group—like the Adirondack Mountains
a

ins
s,

a
palachi

in Upstate New York. No matter how they’re

Adiro
ount

arranged, mountains are often seen as obstacles

to settlement. In the early nineteenth century,
n
M

dac k
p

the United States government was determined

,A

to find a way through the Rocky Mountains,

s

in Ro
t a ck y
72
Mo u n
Adirondack Mountains.
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W E Chapter Four: Land Exploration

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Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900–1944)

I’m sure many of you have read The Little Prince. In the story a pilot is stranded
in the midst of the Sahara Desert where he meets a tiny prince from another world
traveling the universe in order to understand life. During their conversations, the
little prince discovers the true meaning of life and the aviator manages to fix his
plane. Both the aviator and the little prince continue on their journeys.
The author of The Little Prince was a brave and fearless pilot in the early part
of the twentieth century. Saint-Exupéry learned to fly at the age of 21. He became
a mail pilot, delivering mail between remote parts of Africa and later in parts of
South America. It could be very dangerous work because he was often flying over
parts of the Sahara Desert where he would encounter fierce sandstorms, which
would mean he was often “flying blind.” This is when he learned to rely on dead
reckoning—setting a course and knowing the speed of the plane and the time it
would take to reach a destination.
Saint-Exupéry wrote about his mail plane experiences in his book, Wind,
Sand, and Stars. He wrote, “Transport of the mails, transport of the human
voice, transport of flickering pictures—in this century, as in others, our
highest accomplishments still have the single aim of bringing men together.”
He volunteered to fly reconnaissance missions with an American P-38 squadron
during World War II when one day, while on a mission, he just disappeared. No
one knew if he had crashed or had been shot down. It remained a mystery until
1998 when a fisherman brought up part of a silver bracelet with Saint-Exupéry’s
initials on it while fishing off the Port of Marseilles. After recovering pieces of an
airplane in 2004, sixty years after he vanished, the plane was identified as the one
Saint-Exupéry had been flying.
Did the engine malfunction? Was he shot from the sky? No
bullet holes were found but because of the twisted wreckage,
it appears that he fell vertically from a great height.

Saint Exupéry takes off on his last mission before disappearing.

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Triangulation
Triangulation is a technique for providing precise measurements of distances and
angles that was developed by seventeenth-century explorers. It’s based on the
laws of plane trigonometry—if one side and two angles of a triangle are known,
then the other two sides and third angle can be calculated. This is a bit abstract,
but say you want to measure the height of a mountain. Think of the peak as one
point on a triangle. You would measure the base of the mountain and call that
the baseline. Then two adjacent angles are measured
by using a surveying device called a theodolite,
and with that information, you can construct the
entire triangle. By constructing a series of adjacent
triangles, values can be obtained for distances and
Start & End
angles not otherwise measurable.

which stretched from what is now Canada south to what is now the American
Southwest. The government wanted to find a pass—or a way through the
mountains—that would allow European settlers to expand to the Pacific (Native
Americans already lived throughout the West).
What are the problems encountered by those trying to navigate through
mountains? First, the change in altitude means that not only is it more difficult
to climb or descend mountain slopes, but it will get colder as elevation increases.
Travelers could find themselves totally unprepared to be making their way
through the deep snow they might
find on mountaintops.
In 1825 Jedediah Smith found
the South Pass, a key passageway
through the treacherous Rocky
Mountains. South Pass had been
discovered by earlier explorers
and mountain men who worked
74 The South Pass.
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W E Chapter Four: Land Exploration

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Oregon Trail
This road to the West was known by many names. It was called the Oregon
Trail, the California Trail, the Platte Trail, and the Mormon Trail by people who
traveled it. It was primarily an emigrant trail. However, the Oregon Trail was
also used by the Army, and stagecoaches and the Pony Express route followed
part of the trail. The Oregon Trail continued to be heavily traveled during the
Civil War, but once the Union Pacific
Railroad was built in 1869, the use of the
Oregon Trail declined.
The Oregon Trail was an overland route
from the Missouri River to the Willamette
Valley in Oregon. The route had been used
since early in the nineteenth century by
trappers and traders, but the first wagon
Covered wagons along the Oregon Trail.
train of settlers reached Oregon by way of
the trail in 1842. The next year came the “great migration,” during which about
1,000 people and more than 1,000 head of stock followed the trail west. Within
two years the number of migrants had tripled, and over the next decade, more
and more families seeking homes in Oregon made the trek. The journey from
Independence, Missouri, to the Willamette Valley took six months. This was
a 2,000-mile trip where emigrants could experience hostile Indians, terrible
weather, lack of food and supplies, and rough terrain. Do you think you could
have made the journey?

75
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Tools of Navigation W E

ornia Tr
S

i f a
forl the Astor Fur Company
a but its location had been kept secret. Smith made
eC

il
sure everyone knew about this important corridor. Running through west central
eM or Pass was a 20-mile-wide break in the Rockies at the relatively

, th
Wyoming, South
T r a i l, t h

d th

mon
low elevation of 7,550 feet above sea level. This is not a narrow notch—like we

e Pla
a il
usually think of passes. In fact, most people using the South Pass didn’t even
an

Tr
realize they were crossing the Continental Divide (where the rivers on the western
t
te
Trail,
side of the divide flow to the Pacific and on the eastern side flow to the east).
n

This pass became the only practical

g o

corridor to the West. Beginning in 1843, a

e

r
great migration of people—eventually up
O
to half a million settlers—found their way
to the western states by walking along
what became known as the Oregon Trail.
Once they found themselves in the South
Pass, they still had 1,000 miles to go before Independence Rock.
they reached the Pacific. With prominent
landmarks like Independence Rock along the trail to help steer them in the
correct direction, settlers made their way into western states like Utah, Oregon,
and California.
Today, you can still see wagon ruts made 150 years ago by settlers moving
through the South Pass in Wyoming.
Settlers who made their way across the United States did so searching for
land and a new place to settle. These journeys were long and
See New
est Model
s of Cov
ered W
ag difficult and the settlers endured much
Pioneer G
ons at L
ucky Lo
u’s New
& Used
hardship along the way. Settlers
azette
Wagon
s.

Pioneers M or pioneers would often be guided

ove West i
n Record N by men who were familiar with
Travele
umbers the trail, but that didn’t prevent
r ’s
Long an exclaim, “It’s a
d Windin
g Road.” them from falling prey to harsh
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When was the Oregon Trail used?
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W E Chapter Four: Land Exploration

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As the land became more settled, roads appeared along the paths taken by early
settlers. Why? Because settlers were often guided along routes that contained the
least number of obstacles. That meant people followed rivers and streams and
looked for low places or passes—like the South Pass—to get through mountain
ranges. Guides often followed paths made by animals or by Native Americans
(who also followed animal paths). So when we look at settlement patterns, paths
and then roads often appear on paths previously used by animals. People tended
to create settlements along waterways for ease of travel and on good agricultural
land where there was plenty of fresh water available. Look at the placement
of some of the big cities in the United States—New York, Los Angles, Chicago,
New Orleans—they’re all on navigable waterways with good harbors in close
proximity to fresh water.

Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806)

On June 20, 1803, President Thomas Jefferson set the objective for the Corps of
Discovery, as it would be called. Jefferson was interested in finding a northwest
water route to the Pacific Ocean to open up the western wilderness to trade and
settlement. He commandeered Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to
lead the expedition. Jefferson wrote:

The Object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river & such principal
stream of it as by it’s course and communication with the waters of the Pacific
ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado or any other river may offer
the most direct & practicable water communication across this continent for the
purpose of commerce.

Imagine yourself in
that time period. The
known world of North
America lay along
the East Coast west to
about Ohio. To venture

Map of Lewis & Clark expedition. 77

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Tools of Navigation W E

beyond was to go into the territory where Native Americans and fur traders
lived and where stories about fantastic creatures (like wooly mammoths and
gigantic bears) were told. But Lewis and Clark were both careful observers of the
land around them, and Jefferson knew they would be able to map the territory
they covered on the expedition.

Life on the Trail with Lewis and Clark

Lewis and Clark recorded 122 animals and 178 plants previously unknown to
science in their remarkable journals. Along with scientific observations, their
vivid accounts of their life on the trail give us insight into what it was like to spend
28 months on the road in uncharted territory. The expedition had to be resourceful
and brought along a sewing kit, carpentry tools, and a portable smithy.
Here are a few examples of life on the trail from their journals. Note the
creative spelling.
July 30, 1805— “. . . having now secured my supper . . . I cooked my duck
which I found very good and after eating it layed down and should have had
a comfortable nights lodge but for the musquetoes
which infested me all night . . .”
August 2, 1805— “. . . we feasted sumptuously
on our wild fruits, particularly the yellow currents
and the deep purple service berries, which I found
to be excellent . . . on our way we saw an abundance
of deer [and] Antelopes, of the former we killed 2.
we also saw many tracks of the Elk and bear, no
recent appearance of Indians . . .”
July 16, 1806— “. . . saw a buffalow & Sent Shannon to kill it this buffalow
provd to be very fat Bull I had most of the Flesh brought on an a part of the Skin
to make mockersons for Some of our lame horses . . . and put on their feet which
Seams to relieve them very much in passing over the Stony plains . . .”

78 Images above: Pages from the journals of Lewis & Clark.

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Jefferson knew the importance of

making measurements of latitude and
longitude. He provided the expedition
with costly mapping instruments including
several compasses, a sextant, an octant,
rods and chains (for linear measurement),
telescopes, artificial horizons, drafting
Meriwether Lewis William Clark
instruments, a very early version of a
measuring tape, a chronometer, and books and tables giving the daily locations
of the sun, moon, and planets to aid in computing geographical position.
Every day, for the 28 months of the expedition, Lewis and Clark made daily
measurements of longitude and latitude, and calculated their course, the time,
and the distance traveled. These they noted in their elk-skin journal under the
nt, a sses, a sexta
headings “course,” “time,” “distance,” and “remarks.” compa no
cta
“Course” referred to the direction the expedition was traveling. They n
Course, TimethisDistance, and Remarks

t,
determined by noting compass bearings between two points or two

ro
d sa
landmarks. For example, they might stand on a bluff and point ntheir g instcompass
fti ru m

nd c
a
at a large rock jutting out of a hill a couple of miles away. Thisdr line between two

en

hains (fo
mete rather
s,
points is called an azimuth. Their compasses registered magneticnonorth

ts
al horizon

, a mea
r
chro
than geographic north so they also had to correct for the difference between ,a

r li
the two (declination). As they moved farther west, they had to remember to ur

s
ing tape

n
fici

e
constantly adjust the number they used for declination.

ar
r t i

m
ea
a

“Time” was the time required to get from the reference point used for the sur pes
,
eme s c o
beginning of the azimuth to the end reference point. For example they would
nt), tele

walk from the bluff where they stood and note how long it took them—in hours
and minutes—to reach the large rock they took the reading from. They used a
chronometer to get a precise measurement of time (that is if they remembered to
wind it, which they periodically forgot to do).

Words to know
octant: instrument eventually replaced by the sextant. Measures Z\, of a circle or 45 degrees.
forage: search for food and provisions.
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How long did it take the Lewis & Clark expedition to reach the Pacific?
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“Distance” was taking a measurement between the

two points. This was either given as miles or as yards
or rods. Measurements were obtained by pacing the
course or by estimating the distance (knowing how
much time it would normally take them to cover a
Journal map entry describing two
particular distance by foot or by horse).
forks of river.
The “remarks” were descriptive observations
about the reference points and the surrounding
countryside. For instance, they’d note how wide a river
was at that particular point, and the height of the hills.
Journal entry describing
encounter with Native Americans.

Sacagawea
As a young girl Sacagawea was taken from her Shoshone family by a raiding
Indian party of Minnetares. She eventually ended up the wife of Toussaint
Charbonneau, and accompanied him on the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Sacagawea is only mentioned about 25 times in the extensive journals kept
by the expedition. But the picture that emerges is one of an
incredibly resourceful young woman. She foraged for and
taught Lewis and Clark about the nutritional and medicinal
value of the native plants, proving to be very helpful to
members of the expedition.
When they were near the headwaters of the Missouri
River, in present-day Montana, Sacagawea became reunited
with her Shoshone family, who she hadn’t seen in several
years. Her brother was now the chief of the tribe! She served
as an interpreter and guide in that area of the northwest. Although Sacagawea
clearly pulled her weight on this dangerous expedition—all the while caring for
her infant son—she wasn’t paid for her contributions.

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Who was president during the Lewis & Clark expedition?
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Their arduous journey took them

through wild territory. Although
they didn’t find a water route to the
Pacific Ocean, they did locate several
passes that would allow settlers to
cross the Rocky Mountains on their
way to the Northwest. To help them
speak to the Native American tribes they expected
to meet along the way, Lewis and Clark hired
Toussaint Charbonneau, a French trapper, to serve
as an interpreter. Charbonneau brought along his
Photo of the Great Falls along the wife, a young Shoshone woman named Sacagawea
Missouri River.
and their infant son, Jean Baptiste.
Clark was responsible for creating the map that was engraved and published
in 1814. Course and distance information is apparent on the map and coordinated
positions are accurate to within 5 percent, an enormous achievement that wouldn’t
be surpassed until the area was mapped using aerial photography more than a
hundred years later.

John Charles Frémont (1813–1890)

Lewis and Clark opened up the passage to the Northwest
with their amazing expedition of 1804–1806. The United States
government was very interested in finding out exactly what
kind of land lay between the shores of the Atlantic and the
Pacific Oceans. One of the more colorful characters who opened
up the West to settlement by finding and then mapping easier
ways to travel across the country was John Charles Frémont.
Frémont was the son-in-law of the powerful senator from Missouri, Thomas
Hart Benton. Because of this connection, many believe that during some
of Frémont’s mapping expeditions, he was actually acting as a spy for the
government. Secret meetings he had while in California in 1845 most likely led

81
Who helped Lewis & Clark communicate with the Native American tribes they met along the way?
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ACTIVITY
Map the School Grounds (or Your Backyard)
This activity will give you some practical compass experience.

Supplies:
• Directional or orienteering compass
tree
• Pencils 236°
22.5 feet
• Notebook 310°
garden
22.25 feet
• Two large sheets of paper shed

• Ruler
• Yardstick or measuring tape 186°
15 feet shrub

shrub 44°
25 feet
110°
20 feet
driveway

Instructions: 1 inch = 15 feet

• Work in teams of two or more.

• First, determine your pace by taking five paces, marking that spot with a
stone or other object, then returning to your starting place. A pace is every
two steps (for example, if you start with your right foot, count every time your
left foot hits the ground). Next measure the distance from your starting place

to the conquest of California, which was then a territory and part of Mexico.
What Frémont contributed to our knowledge of traveling to the West was
maps. He was not an explorer; he traveled over routes that were already known.
But by mapping them, he opened up many parts of the West to settlement. His
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to your mark. Divide by five and that is your average pace. (Hint: your pace
should be around five feet.)

• Determine the boundaries of your backyard or schoolyard. From your starting

place, take a bearing on an object (tree, shrub, corner of a building) that’s at
the corner of one of your boundary lines. Write down that bearing in your
notebook. Pace off the distance and write that down next to the bearing.
Repeat this until you’ve determined the outline of your map. This is not easy
and the more bearings you take, the more accurate your map will be. (Hint:
only map the area you can see from your starting place.)

• Plot your bearings on your large piece of paper. Figure out what your scale is
going to be, making sure your distances will fit on the paper. Try something
like 1 inch = 10 feet. Find north from your starting place and draw a compass
rose and scale on your paper.

• Place your compass directly on your paper and turn the compass housing to
your first bearing. Next, line up the needle with the north arrow, which means
turning the entire compass. Put a mark on your map where you are starting,
then draw a line using the straightedge of your compass. Use your ruler to
measure the line and extend it the proper distance.

• Plot all the bearings, always making sure to line up the magnetic needle with
the north arrow. Label your lines with bearing and distance.

expedition of 1843–1844 mapped the Oregon Trail. He went to the Great Salt
Lake and followed the Snake River toward Oregon and then headed south into
California where he crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains and then the Mojave
Desert. In 1845 Frémont was surveying the Arkansas and Red Rivers at the
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ta
oun ins,
S

M
100-degree longitude boundary line of the United States when he went to the
da

M
a and opened a new transcontinental route from the Great Salt
California territory
re t

oja
rra Neva

G California.
Lake to northern

Salt

ve
ver,
Frémont contributed to a government publication advertising the West as the
e
place to settle. Then he acted as a guide

D
L ak
i

e
for emigrants wanting to reach the West
R

s
er
Coast. Frémont’s maps of the Far West
t , Re d
ie

remained the most accurate depictions

S

of parts of the frontier until the 1870s but

exploration of the West was still incidental
and haphazard throughout much of the
nineteenth century.
Even accurate maps were no substitute
for good common sense for settlers
moving west. The Donner Pass is a pass in
the Sierra Nevada Mountains named for
John Charles Frémont’s route in 1845 would later
one ill-fated expedition where common become the Oregon Trail.
sense did not prevail.
The Donner party was made up of 87 men, women, and children who made
a terrible mistake when traveling across the country from Illinois to California
in 1846–47. This group of emigrants decided to take a short cut that turned
into a “long cut” that left them at the base
of the Sierra Nevada Mountains at the
end of October. With only 150 miles to go
to reach Fort Sumter in California (now
Sacramento), the Donner party became
trapped by an early, fierce winter snow.
They made lean-tos and crude cabins for
The Donner Party is trapped by a snowstorm.
shelter but food was scarce and the snow
was too deep to hunt. Forty-one people died before they were rescued.

84
The New Age of Exploration
Navigation from Pole to Pole As the
First Extreme Sport

W hat spurred people to move west, away

from the comforts of home and family?
A couple of things. First was the promise of
land. Many people wanted to leave the Eastern Meet the adventurers
states, which were getting crowded, and find a who conquered the
place where they could carve out a new life. It highest peaks and
traveled to the North
was a very brave thing to do, especially since it
and South Poles
meant traveling over thousands of miles with
all of your belongings piled high in a wagon. Explore the great
While the oxen or horses pulled the wagon, all rivers of the American
the members of a family would walk behind West
unless they were sick. Many people didn’t make
Discover Africa’s
it and died while on the trail. remote corners
gold
Have you ever heard the expression, “there’s
gold in them thar hills!”? The discovery of gold,
,s

silver, or copper in parts of California, Montana,

ilver,

Arizona, Colorado, and South Dakota brought

hundreds of thousands of people to the West to
try their hand at prospecting. Huge boom towns
r

co p p e
sprang up overnight whenever the cry “Gold!”
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Sale on
One-W S
ay Tick
ets to Pr
om ontory

Pioneer G
, Utah.

echoed through the land. Most who came seeking

their fortune didn’t find it, but once they were in East Meet azette
Union P s West—A
acific an
lmost
May 10
, 1869
d Pacifi

Oops!
the West, they stayed. c Railro
ad Line
s: Close
, but no
Cigar.
The government sent teams of engineers Lorem ips
um
ctetuer ad dolor sit amet,
ipi co
nummy nib scing elit, sed dia nse
and surveyors west during the 1850s in what oreet do
lutpat. Ut
h euismod
lore mag tincidunt
na aliquam ut la
m no

w erat
m, quis no isi enim ad minim vo
is known as the Great Reconnaissance. These orper su
strud exer
scipi
ex ea co t lobortis nisl ut
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amc
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autem ve odo consequat. ip
surveying expeditions filled in some of the gaps l eum iriu
re dolor in Du
hendre
is

on the map, providing an accurate and comprehensive look at

the trans-Mississippi west. This was the first step to achieving a permanent
link between California and the East—a link that would become a reality in the
next decade.
In 1862, the building of the transcontinental
railroad began. The Central Pacific line was laid from
west to east over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and
the Union Pacific line was built from east to west,
crossing the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains.
On May 10, 1869, to great fanfare, the two rail lines
met at Promontory, Utah, permanently linking the two Joining the Transcontinental
Rairoad with the Golden Spike
coasts. The connection of the two railroads bridged
on May 9, 1869 in Promontory,
the 2,000 miles from the West Coast to the Missouri Utah.
River. Try to imagine what
an enormous task it was to Central Pacific Line
lay down thousands of miles
of tracks. The work was
Union Pacific Line
very hard and dangerous as
construction crews blasted
their way through mountains
and built bridges over rivers.

Words to know
Great Reconnaissance: the period of western exploration just before and during the Civil War.
trans-Mississippi west: the frontier west of the Mississippi.
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The railroads hired very cheap labor—often

newly arrived immigrants like the Chinese and
the Irish—to do all the backbreaking work.
Even after the Great Reconnaissance there
were still gaps in the map of the West. No one
had mapped the Green River or the Colorado
River (in modern day Wyoming, Utah, and
Arizona) because that kind of mapping
expedition was seen as too dangerous. These
rivers cut deep canyons into rock, culminating
in the Grand Canyon—the granddaddy of all
Map of the Colorado River.
canyons.
Although the Grand Canyon exposes rocks that are nearly two billion years
old, the canyon itself is relatively young—only four to six million years old. The
power of the mighty Colorado River cutting through the rocks of the Colorado
Plateau as it has been rising up (due to a geologic process known as uplift) has
produced a canyon one mile deep, 10 miles across, and nearly 300 miles long.
In 1869, a one-armed Civil War veteran (he lost his
arm at the Battle of Shiloh) convinced nine other men
to set out from Green River Station in the Wyoming
Territory on what is known as the Colorado River
Exploring Expedition. John Wesley Powell, soldier
r and C a n
turned professor of geology, intended to make
G the region, filling iny
scientific observations and map on
the blank space on the map.
John Wesley Powell
ll c a
The 10 men headed out in four boats with enough
a
—
food for 10 months and their mapping equipment—compasses, barometers,
n yo

t he
dy of

chronometers, and a sextant. In addition to mapping the course of the rivers,

they also planned to measure the height of the canyon walls. n
s
This was a very bold, and some would say foolhardy, expedition. These men
gr

d
were trapped on the river for 99 days, traveling through areas with canyon walls
an
dda
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Measuring Canyon Walls

John Wesley Powell and his men used barometers to figure out altitude, or the
height of the canyon walls. How did they do that? We think of barometers as
tools for measuring changes in weather pressure. Because pressure changes with
changes in altitude, barometers can also be used for this kind of mapping. Powell
would have one man reading a barometer every half hour
while sitting at camp, as he and another man climbed the
canyon wall carrying a barometer, also taking readings
every half hour. When they got back to camp, Powell could
compare the readings that were done simultaneously. The
difference between the readings would help him determine
latitude. This was dangerous work and the men climbed
without ropes or any safety gear. And remember, Powell
had only one arm.

that were often so high or so sheer that there weren’t places to pull the boats out and
make camp. The mid-summer weather was miserable, and temperatures soared
into the triple digits. But the most unpredictable thing of all was the river. The
expedition never knew if rapids or a waterfall or still water lay around the next
bend. They would often hear rapids before they saw them,
which added to the tension. Food became a preoccupation.
There were few wild animals like deer or rabbits to hunt
for food at the bottom of the canyon and much of their
supply of food was eaten, lost, or spoiled in the first seven
weeks of the trip.
By the end of the 99-day expedition, they had covered
1,000 miles of twisting, turning, white-capped water.
They were down to six men from the original ten—one
left at the first chance he got, and three climbed out of the
Cliffs on the Colorado River.
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1,000 m
S

canyon just hours before the expedition ended and were never heard from again
and were presumed dead. Two boats were lost. The group had run 414 rapids and

il
ys

e s, 4 1 4
portaged (carried their boats) around 62 others. At the end of the journey all they
a
had left to eat was 80 pounds of coffee, 15 pounds of dried apples, and 10 pounds

99 d
of flour.
These were the first white men to “run” the length of the canyon, and Powell’s
ra
pids,
official government report of 1875 details the hardships they endured. But it also
documents the marvels of the canyon—the extraordinary geology and the power
of the river—some of which have been lost with the building of dams in the 1960s.
It would be decades before anyone else would attempt to “run the canyon.”

Exploring Africa: “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”

Across the Atlantic Ocean lay Africa—a large,
mysterious continent with impenetrable jungles, fierce
and wonderful wildlife, seemingly endless deserts,
and exotic people. There are remarkable exploration
stories about Africa, many connected to the search for
the source of the Nile River. But Africa was also the
source of the slave trade. This prompted many anti-
slavery missionary societies to send missionaries to
what was known as the “dark continent.”
Dr. David Livingstone
One of the most famous nineteenth-century
missionaries to spend time in Africa was Dr. David Livingstone (1813–1873). A
Scottish medical doctor by trade, Livingstone was also an ardent missionary and
intrepid explorer. From 1840 until his death in 1873, Livingstone spent most of
his time in Africa. He first crossed the Kalahari Desert in 1849, which people said
was impossible to do, and then took his family
across the desert in 1851 (his wife became the
first white woman to cross the desert).
Livingstone was driven to explore deeper
and deeper into the vast interior of Africa, and

Dr. Livingstone, I presume? 89

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in 1852 he set off from Cape Town on the Zambezi Expedition to explore and
map the course of the Zambezi River. He stumbled upon and named Victoria
Falls (named after Queen Victoria, Queen of England), a gorgeous drop of water
located in modern-day Zimbabwe. Victoria Falls remains a popular tourist
destination to this day.

Sir Henry Morton Stanley

Sir Henry Morton Stanley (1841–1904) was born John Rowlands, in Wales.
He took the name of an American merchant who gave
Rowlands a job and virtually adopted him. Stanley
was working as a newspaper reporter for the New
York Herald when his publisher sent him to Africa to
find Dr. Livingstone, who had not been heard from for
several years. Money was no object. Stanley hired 2,000
porters in Africa and set out for Central Africa. After
eight months, Stanley found the ailing Livingstone in
Ujiji and wrote in his journal that he greeted him with Map of the travels of
Stanley and Livingstone.
the now-famous remark, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”
Stanley nursed Livingstone back to health, and later accompanied him on an
exploration of the northern end of Lake Tanganyika. Stanley spent
the next decade exploring Central Africa, including leading a
party down the lengths of the Lualaba and Congo Rivers to the
Atlantic Ocean, which he wrote about in many books and articles.
The party slogged and bushwhacked their way through brutal
equatorial jungles where the expedition suffered from disease,
desertion, drowning, and, at one point, an ambush by thousands of
Sir Henry cannibals. Of the 359 people who began the expedition, only 108
Morton Stanley
reached the ocean. Although he made invaluable contributions to
our knowledge about previously unexplored regions, Stanley was ruthless and
brutal in his dealings with the African people.

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For four long years Livingstone

mapped the midsection of the
continent. His total journey was about
5,000 miles—and 3,000 of those miles
were spent walking. He encountered
malaria, dysentery, sleeping sickness,
insect infestations, monsoons, and
tribal wars. The horrors of the still-
Victoria Falls. active slave trade he encountered on
his journey made him determined to try to help the natives of Africa escape this
horrendous fate, although his efforts were only marginally successful.

Exploring India: Mapping Everest

While gaps in the map of the American West were being filled in and Livingstone
was walking across the African continent, the Great Trigonometrical Survey was
taking place in India. Beginning in the 1830s, British surveyors started mapping
the Indian subcontinent. By using the method of triangulation (explained on page
74) surveyors could accurately determine the heights of points above sea level.
In 1844, the highest mountain in the world was determined to be 29,002 feet. This
mountain was named Everest in 1865 to honor Sir George Everest, the man in
charge of the Trigonometical Survey. Today the official height, set by the Indian
government, is 29,028 feet. It is known as Chomolungma, or “Goddess Mother
of the Snows,” or “Mother Goddess of the Universe” to the Tibetan people. In
Nepal it is called Sagarmath or “Goddess of the Sky.”
The Himalayas—which means “house of snow” in ancient Sanskrit—stretch in
a 1,500-mile curve across Southern Asia and consist of several parallel mountain

Words to know
malaria: an infectious disease in sub-Saharan Africa transmitted by mosquitos.
dysentery: an infection of the intestines.
monsoon: a seasonal wind in southern Asia and Africa that brings heavy rain.
Indian subcontinent: large region in southern Asia, including Bangladesh, India, Pakistan,
Sri Lanka, and parts of Nepal, Bhutan, and Myanmar.
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ranges. Mt. Everest lies on the border between

Tibet and Nepal. K2, the next highest peak at
28,250 feet, is also in the Himalayas and lies
on the border between China and Pakistan.
From the early 1800s until 1949, Nepal
was officially closed to foreigners. The
Trigonometrical Survey employed local, or
Mt. Everest, the highest mountain peak
“pundit,” explorers to do the surveying work in the world.
in the Himalayas. These very brave men
axes, r
carried out their task in secrecy because they weren’t supposed to be working
e
ic British.
for the
op

in
When word of the fantastically high peaks got back to England, there were
s,

h
e s, a n d

t
mpon

people who wanted to climb them. This was a new breed of mountain climber,
g
cl o

people interested in adventure and conquest rather than furthering science. They
climbed with traditional equipment—crampons, ice axes, ropes, and woolen
n

clothing—and were anxious to take on the Himalayas.

cra

woole
In 1922 the first Everest expedition was formed under the lead of Brigadier-
General Charles Bruce of the British Army. No one knew what the effects of
climbing almost six miles into the sky would be, so they took along crude, and

Who are Sherpas?

Sherpas are native to the mountain villages between
Nepal and Tibet. Their villages are at 7,000 to 14,000
feet above sea level so they are naturally acclimated
to the altitude. Sherpas have been accompanying
climbers to the area for the past century and have shown
amazing endurance and courage under the most difficult
circumstances. The most famous Sherpa is Tenzing
Norgay, who, along with Edmund Hillary, was the first
to summit Mt. Everest in 1953. Sherpa guide.

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extremely heavy, oxygen equipment.

Do we know for sure who summitted Everest first? Who were the first known explorers to reach the summit?
They were accompanied by Sherpa
porters who carried the equipment
and provisions.
The Everest expedition made
three assaults on the summit.
At 26,700 feet, the climbers had
The Himalayas from space. Everest is the peak in the middle.
difficulty breathing. They went
back to a base camp and got oxygen containers and tried again. They made it
to 27,230 feet but were turned back by fierce winds. On their third attempt they
were stopped by an avalanche that killed seven of the Sherpa porters.
The British were determined to conquer Everest. In 1924, Englishmen George
Mallory and Andrew Irvine made another attempt
to summit the mountain. They each carried 30-
pound oxygen packs after reaching 28,000 feet.
Eyewitnesses say they got within yards of the
summit and then disappeared. No one ever knew
if they actually made it to the summit, or what
happened. Several years ago, in 1999, climbers Mallory-Irvine expedition at camp.
on Everest discovered Mallory’s body, perfectly George Mallory and Andrew Irvine
(back row left) and Sherpa porters.
preserved in the ice and snow.
The 1950s ushered in the golden age of climbing. Nepal had opened its doors
to the outside world and climbers came in droves. In 1950, Annapurna, another
Himalayan peak, was summitted by Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal. They
became the first men to master a peak over 8,000 meters, at 26,545 feet.
In 1953, a British team led by
John Hunt went to Everest. They
established a base camp at 18,000 feet
and another camp at 26,000 feet. From
there a pair of climbers were chosen
to attempt to summit. The first pair
The summit of Annapurna.
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were turned back by lack of oxygen. Then

Edmund Hillary, a beekeeper from New
Zealand, and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa,
made their attempt. Hillary later wrote
that he was preoccupied the entire time by
their ever-dwindling supply of oxygen— Edmund P. Hillary on the five dollar bill of New
Zealand.
he kept wondering if they would have
enough to summit and to return to camp. The climb was excruciatingly slow:
they gained one foot per minute as they inched along. They finally made it.
They stayed at the summit for 15 minutes where Hillary buried a small crucifix
in the snow (at Hunt’s request) and Norgay buried a packet of chocolate as a gift
to the Buddhist gods.

Exploring the Poles: Race to Discovery

While continents were being explored and mapped and peaks were being
conquered, there were two places on earth that held an endless fascination for
certain explorers—the North Pole and the South
Pole. Both were extremely inhospitable places
and one of them—the North Pole—wasn’t even
on solid land! Yet the race to the poles caught on
like a fever and in the early part of the twentieth
century the public was treated to harrowing
accounts of Arctic and Antarctic exploration.
In the 1880s, Norwegian explorer Fridtjof
Dog sled in Arctic Alaska. Nansen had discovered evidence of a current that
crossed the North Pole. A throwing stick used by
the Inuit of the Bering Strait to kill seals was found in driftwood in Greenland,
on the other side of the Arctic Circle. Nansen figured he could design and build
a ship that could ride this “ice highway” across the pole. He left Norway in
his ship, Fram, but got stuck in the ice for 35 months before breaking free and
heading home, never having reached the pole.

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How Do You Know When You’re At the Pole?

Remember that your magnetic compass would be reading magnetic north but
you want to get to geographic north. What would you do to figure out where
you were going, particularly when the end of your journey was on ice that was
moving? If you’re standing at the North Pole, all points are south of you
Magnetic Deviation
(east and west have no bearing). Since the earth completes a
Magnetic North Geographic North
full rotation once every 24 hours, if you’re at the North Pole
your speed of rotation is quite slow—almost no speed at
all, compared to the speed of rotation at the equator of
about 1,038 miles per hour.
Arctic explorers carried a sextant with them to take
measurements as they got closer and closer to the
pole. Prior to GPS, this was the only accurate way to
determine if you actually made it!

The Arctic Circle begins at latitude 66°13’N and has at least one period of
permanent daylight and one period of permanent darkness in a year. At 70
degrees there are no more trees anywhere. Above 80 degrees there are still bits
of solid, permanently frozen land—the northern edge of Greenland, Ellesmere
Island, part of Spitzsbergen, and Franz Josef Land—which is called permafrost.
These are inhospitable places: extremely cold and barren. If you stood on the
t of Spipoint of Greenland and looked toward the North Pole you would
ar
northernmost
psee t
only ice and water. The ice is always moving because of ocean currents
zs
d,

sef Lwinds. This creates the pack ice—thousands of individual ice floes
bergen,

and Arctic
o
Islan

and
zJ

that are either thrust together, creating hills or pressure ridges, or driven apart
creating rivers or Arctic lakes. The closer you get to the pole, the smoother the
an
er e

ice becomes. an
d Fr
Today the native peoples who inhabit the Arctic are called Inuit, although
m

they were called Eskimos by the early Arctic explorers. In the early part of the
es

Gr Ell
eenland,
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Fram
Fridtjof Nansen proposed building a small ship (170 tons) that would carry five
years of provisions for 12 men, would have an engine that could power the ship
at a speed of 6 knots, and would be rigged for sailing. He called his ship Fram,
which means “Onward,” and predicted it would take three years to cross the
Arctic Ocean.
The hull was designed so that the pressure of the ice
would tend to push it up on the ice rather than crush it,
as was the fate of the ships of previous expeditions. The
sides were rounded, the bottom flat, and the ship one
Fram.
third as broad as she was long. In open seas, it was said,
“She sailed with the smooth aplomb of an old barrel, but in ice she performed
splendidly.” Her hull consisted of three layers and was greater than 2 feet thick.

twentieth century the Inuit lived by fishing and hunting and used sled dogs
and sleds (sometimes called sledges) for transportation. They also used kayaks
for fishing and hunting. The most successful polar explorers
used the hunting and traveling techniques of the Inuit.
Salomon Auguste Andrée (1854–1897), head of the
Swedish Patent Office and founder of the Society of
Swedish Inventors, decided to conquer the North
Pole by flying to it in a hydrogen-filled balloon.
He figured it would take 43 hours to get there from
Spitzsbergen. After several unsuccessful attempts Arctic Circle
to launch, he finally set off on July 11, 1897. Things

Words to know
Inuit: native people who inhabit the Arctic.
sledge: a sled pulled by dogs used in the Arctic region for transportation.
trichinosis: the disease caused when the trichina larvae are transmitted through
inadequately cooked meat.
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went wrong immediately and he and his two

companions had to throw precious provisions
overboard to stay aloft. Three days later the
balloon sank to the pack ice, and the expedition
was never heard from again.
In 1930 a Swedish scientific expedition
made an extraordinary discovery—they
found Andrée’s camp on White Island, a
desolate spot 200 miles east of Spitzsbergen.
Among the effects they found several diaries,
The dotted line shows Andrée’s intended
course; the solid line shows the places from which indicated the men survived until
which the balloon had been sighted. October 1. They also found a camera and were
able to develop some of the photographs. It was originally
assumed that Andrée and his men died from carbon
monoxide poisoning by using their cook stove in a closed
tent, but later it was determined that they actually died of
trichinosis gotten from eating polar bear meat.
On April 6, 1909, Americans Robert
E. Peary and Matthew Henson, and
Inuits Egingwah, Seegloo, Ootah, and Ooqueah reached the
Greenla
nd North Pole. Peary wrote in his diary, “The Pole at last!!! The
prize of three centuries, my dream and ambition for
twenty-three years. Mine at last . . .” After 36 hours at
the North Pole camp, the six men began the 413-mile
journey back to land.
Peary had been trying to reach the pole for decades.
He had spent time in Northern Greenland learning all
he could from the Inuit—how to select the best sled
dogs, how to drive the dogs, how to build igloos, and
how to make clothes from the skins of animals like
seal and polar bear. A Peary Arctic Club was formed

Robert Peary in the Arctic. 97

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to raise money to finance Peary’s quest for the North Pole. A new ship was built
for the explorer with a massive steam engine and steel girders in the hull that
could withstand the crushing Arctic ice.
Like many polar explorers, Peary left caches of supplies along his route. This
way his sleds were lighter as he raced to the North Pole and he was guaranteed
much-needed food and fuel on the
“The Pole at last!!! The prize of return trip. Not reaching the caches
three centuries, my dream and or miscalculating their positions
ambition for twenty-three could mean the difference between
years. Mine at last . . .” life and death.
When Peary returned to land at
the tip of Ellesmere Island, he discovered to his horror that Dr. Frederick Cook,
another American, claimed to have reached the North Pole a full year earlier on

Who went to the North Pole with Robert E. Peary?

Matthew Henson ran away to sea at the age of 12 and had already traveled the
globe by the time he met Robert Peary in a Washington, D.C., hat shop where
Henson worked as a clerk. Henson went on a Nicaraguan
expedition with Peary and accompanied him on his trips
to the far north. He became an amazing sledge builder, dog
driver, and all-around assistant. It was believed that Peary
chose Henson to accompany him on the final leg of the
journey to the North Pole because Henson was black. That
Matthew Hensen
way Peary could claim to be the first white man to reach the
pole. Today Matthew Henson is buried in Arlington National Cemetery a couple
of yards from Admiral Peary. He is considered America’s first black explorer.

Words to know
cache: a hiding place for storing and preserving provisions.
Denali: the highest peak in North America at 20,320 feet; means “the great one” in the
Native American Athabascan language.
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.”It Wa s a Lie!”
confesses . .
Mt McKinley
Companion April 21, 1908. This became the biggest news
story of the year—who actually reached the

Did HeCoookrNDickid n’tDr.HDeceep?tion. pole first? Cook’s claim was soon thrown
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aching the North
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with him said they never lost sight of land,

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which is over 400 miles from the pole. Then
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in hendre Cook’s previous claim to fame—that he was
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the first man to summit Mt. McKinley (now called Denali) in

Alaska—was exposed as a hoax.
s led dogs
But all was not smooth sailing for Peary. There were questions about the,
remarkable distances he covered in short periods of time. When questioned

ig
Nort
about his achievement by a Congressional committee, Peary had a difficult time

loos, sea
,
explaining how quickly he traveled over short periods of time on his way back

h Po
bears
from the pole. He also couldn’t explain how he managed to travel in a straight
line on constantly moving sea ice from land to the pole without making any le,
observations for longitude.
ls, r
So how did Peary navigate to the North Pole when he had no stable landmarks p ol a
for reference points? First, Peary knew that at local noon his shadow pointed
due north. An hour later, his shadow would
have shifted 15 degrees (and 15 degrees for
all subsequent hours). When it was local
noon, Peary set his compass course. Next
he located an ice mass that lay along the
compass course and then headed toward it.
Peary took chronometers, a sextant, and
an artificial horizon with him on his trek to
the pole. He was very capable of making
accurate longitude determinations using the
tools he had. Professional surveyors from the
Coast and Geodetic Survey talked to Peary
upon his return and were satisfied that he
Matthew Henson (front) and Robert E. Peary. 99
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could accurately estimate longitude based on determining local noon. They then
testified on Peary’s behalf before Congress.
Today, most people accept that Admiral Peary—he was made an Admiral
because of his trip to the pole—was the first white man to reach the North Pole.

Race to the South Pole

To the far south, another polar race began. Robert
Falcon Scott, an Englishman, and Roald Amundsen, a
Norwegian explorer, raced each other to see who would
Antarctic
reach the South Pole first. Unlike the North Pole, which
lies on shifting Arctic ice, the South Pole is
on solid land—Antarctica.
One of the problems with exploring Antarctica
was that no one lived there. This extremely
inhospitable frozen land with mountain ranges
and huge thicknesses of glacial ice was home
only to birds and sea mammals. There were no
native peoples like the Inuit to aid the explorers in
Amundsen (left) and
their quest for the pole.
Scott (right)
Amundsen had already had plenty of polar experience.
Between the years of 1903 and 1906, he became the first man to successfully
navigate the Northwest Passage, a famous sea route between Canada and
Greenland that connected the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. On this trip he spent
many months on King William Island performing various scientific experiments
and taking scientific measurements of the precise
location of the magnetic North Pole. During this
time the magnetic North Pole moved through this
area. His Arctic experience led him to embrace
the Inuit way of dressing—loose layers of clothes
made from the skins of Arctic animals like polar
bear and seal—and traveling. He understood the
Magnetic north over the centuries.
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Northwest Passage
From the time Europeans first set foot in the New World they were determined
to find a water passage to the west. They thought they should be able to travel
from Europe to the Far East by traveling west, without having to go all the way
around South America. Many explorers
searched for what became known as the
Northwest Passage, including John Cabot,
Henry Hudson, William Baffin, John Ross,
and John Franklin. Even Lewis and Clark
were searching for a navigable waterway to
link the East with the West.

importance of having top-notch sled dogs and experienced sledge drivers.

Scott, on the other hand, was English to the core. He dressed in woolen clothing,
which was no match for the unbelievably harsh Antarctic weather. When he left to
cross Antarctica in 1910, he knew he was racing Amundsen for the honor of being
the first to reach the pole. In the hope of making better time, Scott decided to use
Manchurian ponies to haul his sleds. This was a bad idea because, even though
they were used to a cold climate, these ponies could not withstand the howling
winds and frigid temperatures of Antarctica. That left Scott and his men to haul the
sledges themselves. On January 1, 1912, Scott was 170 miles from the South Pole.
He decided to take four men with him on the final push, even though one man
didn’t have skis, which further slowed down and complicated the expedition.
On January 12, 1912, Scott finally reached the South Pole where he found
Amundsen’s tent and a letter addressed to Scott which read:
Dear Captain Scott—As you probably are the first to reach this area after us,
I will ask you to kindly forward this letter to [Norwegian] King Haakon VII.
If you can use any of the articles left in the tent please do not hesitate to do so.
The sledge left outside may be of use to you. With kind regards I wish you a
safe return. Yours truly, Roald Amundsen.
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Where Exactly Is the South Pole?

Like the geographic North Pole, the South Pole lies at the point where the lines
of longitude converge (it’s like the part of the orange where all the sections come
together). How would you know if you’ve actually reached the South Pole? As at
the North Pole, you would use a sextant to measure the angle of the sun off the
horizon. When Amundsen reached the South Pole he sent three men out at 90
degrees to each other with the instructions to travel 10 miles in those directions
and to plant a flag. That way he knew he had encircled the pole. Amundsen
stayed at the pole so that his team could take a series of hourly observations with
the sextant over a 24-hour period to determine their actual position. They found
they were 6 miles from the pole so they moved their camp.

Amundsen had reached the pole on December 14, 1911. This was a terrible
disappointment to Scott but he couldn’t dwell on that at the moment. He decided
he had to leave on the 800-mile return trek the very next day because he was
concerned for the health of his men. They never made it back. On March 21,
1912, Scott and his remaining two companions were holed up in a tent, pinned
down by a blizzard. They were starving and freezing, and they knew they were
not going to make it back. Scott’s journal records those sad final days. Tragically,
they were only 11 miles from a food cache when they died.

The Shackleton Expedition

Ernest Shackleton wanted to be the first man to cross
Antarctica from the Weddell Sea in the north to the Ross
Sea in the south. He sailed from England on his ship,
Endurance, in 1914, just days after the beginning of World
War I. In January 1915, Endurance became trapped in
the pack ice. The crew stayed on the ship until October,
when she was finally crushed by the ice. Some amazing
photographs taken by the ship’s photographer exist of
Ernest Shackleton
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Endurance as she sat stuck in the ice.

The crew salvaged what they could from the
ship, including life boats, and then camped on an
ice floe for the next three and a half months. They
knew they had to head for solid land so they set
sail in the lifeboats for Elephant Island, a barren
rocky island 100 miles away. It became clear that
no one would be looking for them—they would
be presumed dead by that point—so they made a
decision. Someone had to head for South Georgia
Island—870 miles away—to get help from the
Endurance in the ice.
whaling station there.
Shackleton and five men boarded one of their salvaged life boats, which
was only 23 feet long and 7 feet wide, and headed out onto the treacherous
sea. Seventeen days later, after enduring almost unceasing gales and even a
hurricane, they landed on the remote, but inhabited, island of South Georgia.

Life in Antarctica
Surviving in Antarctica is extremely difficult. The largest land animal there is
an insect, so the men of the Endurance had to rely on seals and penguins and
whatever they could catch in the sea for their food. There is no wood for fuel so
blubber was burned. Although Antarctica is surrounded by water, by definition
it’s a desert (it has very, very low precipitation) so fresh water was an issue.
During the summer months, ponds of fresh water would occur on top of the ice.
Sea ice that has been above the water level for a while tends to lose most of its salt,
so Shackleton’s men could melt that. Keeping warm and dry took a lot of thought
and energy and could be a matter of life and death. They were also dealing with
shifting ice—cracks in the ice could occur at any time—and sometimes howling,
blinding storms. It was also important to avoid prolonged exposure to the sun or
snow because of the risk of eye damage from ultraviolet rays.

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What did Robert Falcon Scott find when he arrived at the South Pole?
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How did they do it? They had a remarkable navigator South Georgia Island
on board, Frank Worsley, who kept them on course
even though he could only take four sightings
with his sextant over the course of the 17 days at
sea. But their journey wasn’t over yet.
The men had landed opposite the inhabited Elephant Island

side of the island. They were going to have to cross

150 miles of mountainous terrain on foot before
they reached the whaling station. With a compass, a
ometaecook stove, three days provisions, and 50 feet of rope, the men
chronometer,
n r,
ro
headed out. a
ch

When they finally staggered into the whaling camp, the whalers couldn’t
r op
co

f eyes. Shackleton and his men had long been given up for dead.
believeotheir
mpass, a

o k st o
e
feet

Twenty weeks after Shackleton headed out on his amazing journey from Elephant
Island to South Georgia Island, he returned to collect his remaining shipmates,
0

who were near death. Remarkably, during this entire time, not one crew member
e,
a nd 5
from Endurance was lost.
c o

There were several other Arctic and Antarctic firsts in the early twentieth
a

century that made our world seem just a little smaller. Admiral Commodore
Richard E. Byrd flew a plane over the North Pole in 1926 and over the South Pole
in 1929. Byrd became the best-known explorer of his generation. Amundsen flew
a dirigible over the North Pole in 1926 and had a
lifelong argument with the Italian designer of the
dirigible, Umberto Nobile, as to who could actually
claim the accomplishment. (Ironically, Amundsen
died while searching for Nobile, his bitter enemy,
when he was missing on another Arctic expedition.)
Aerial exploration altered our view of the world
from the North Pole to the South Pole and gave us
a new perspective of our earth.

Admiral Commodore Richard E. Byrd

104
Who was the first explorer to reach the South Pole?
 Twentieth Century
Navigation
Aeronautical Navigation and the GPS Revolution

L ike sailors on the sea or travelers on

the road, a pilot’s job is to reach his
destination. Just think about what the
word “aeronautical” means—sailing through
the air. This requires that pilots know their
Learn how pilots
navigate

exact location at any point during the journey. See how GPS works
To aid in this, pilots use compasses and other Discover how
instruments to navigate accurately. Today, navigators find their
many airplanes are equipped with sophisticated way without using
computer equipment to make navigating a their eyes
breeze, particularly on a long flight. Explore Mars on a
Mars Rover
Flight Navigation
The aeronautical chart is the
most important navigational aid
to pilots. Published by the U.S.
Department of Commerce, these
charts look like road maps. They
show the locations of various
landmarks, airline routes, landing
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fields, and radio stations that broadcast airplane The

Aviation
navigation signals. The Instrument Flight Rules Flying on F lyer
(IFR) chart is a special type of aeronautical chart Instrum
e
This isn’t nts??
w hat they h
that gives only the locations and frequencies of Lorem ips
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American airline pilots have to operate under m, quis
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instrument flight rules at all times. Airplanes carry a l eum iriu
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special type of radar receiver and transmitter called a transponder. The

transponder receives a radar signal from one of a series of air route traffic control
centers that are operated throughout the United States. When the signal reaches
the ground, it makes the plane show up clearly on the radar screen allowing the
traffic control centers to track the plane’s progress.
If you’ve ever spent much time flying,
y s to navi chances are you’ve been stuck sitting on a runway
wa ga at least once, waiting for the plane’s turn to take
3

off. Large and medium-sized airports have air

te

ni n
ko
traffic control towers where specially trained
a plane:

air traffic controllers use radar and radio

g,
d re c

communications to direct the planes that

ra

di are landing or taking off. Many airports also

ea

o have an instrument landing system (ILS) to

pi help pilots land their planes safely. A series of
lot g, d
in radio beams from the ground operate a special
instrument in the cockpit of a plane. Pilots can tell
their exact position in relation to the runway by watching this instrument.

Words to know
transponder: a radar receiver and transmitter carried by all airplanes in America that
allows airport traffic control centers to keep track of all the planes.
air traffic controller: someone who works as part of the air traffic control system to
maintain a safe and orderly flow of air traffic so there are no mid-air collisions.
VHF: stands for very high frequency, used in FM radio, TV broadcasts, and aircraft
communications.
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There are three main ways to navigate a plane, and most pilots use a
combination of the three methods.
The simplest method is called piloting. Before takeoff, a pilot draws a course
line on the aeronautical chart and keeps on the desired course by noting various
landmarks. As the plane flies over each landmark—like a bridge, a highway,
railroad tracks, a river, or a town—the pilot checks it off on the chart. If the plane
doesn’t pass directly over a landmark that lies along the course line, the pilot
knows the plane is off-course and
must be corrected.
Another method of navigating
is one you’ve already read about—
dead reckoning. A pilot uses dead
reckoning any time landmarks
can’t be seen, such as when flying
over large bodies of water, forests,
deserts, or through thick clouds.
Charles Lindbergh with his plane. To navigate with this method, a
pilot needs an aeronautical chart,
an accurate clock (chronometer), a compass, and a small computer for figuring
out complicated mathematical problems. The pilot plots the course on the chart
in advance and figures out how long it should take to reach the destination while
flying at a constant speed. Using the computer, the pilot can adjust the course to
allow for the effect of the wind.
While in the air, the pilot uses the compass to keep the plane on course and keeps
careful track of the time. Dead reckoning doesn’t always work because winds can
change and keep a plane from staying exactly on course. Charles Lindbergh used
dead reckoning when he made his historic nonstop flight
over the Atlantic Ocean in 1929. He plotted his course
from New York to Ireland using Weems curves (see next
page) and then flew through the night using only the stars
and a compass to guide his way. Navigation tools
developed by Weems.
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What are the three methods used by pilots to navigate a plane?
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Captain Philip Van Horn Weems

Captain Weems, nicknamed “the Grand Old Man of Navigation,” was an
innovator credited with vastly improving navigational techniques that had
remained unchanged since the early 1800s. Weems was a brilliant navigator
in the U.S. Navy who realized that if man was going to
conquer the skies, they were going to have to figure out a
better way to navigate. A compass, sextant, and charts were
the necessary tools for plotting a course but these became
very cumbersome in a cramped airplane cockpit.
In the early 1930s, Captain Weems invented the Second
Setting Watch, which had an inner rotating dial that
allowed the second hand to match the dial perfectly. This
Captain Weems, the Grand
made finding Greenwich mean time (GMT) easier. In the Old Master of Navigation.
air, a miscalculation in seconds could mean the difference
between life or death. Weems also invented the Weems Plotter, which combined
a protractor, a straight edge, and a parallel rule and is still one of the most basic
tools for any navigator or even recreational boater.
His most significant navigational innovation was the simplification of a
practice that provided an accurate fix from the position of the stars, sun, moon,
and planets. He created pre-figured, quick-reference tables that eliminated or
reduced the complicated mathematical computations required when taking a fix
on a celestial body. These pre-calculated position lines were called Weems curves.
A teacher at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in the 1920s,
Weems went on to establish his own school in Annapolis to teach the Weems
System of Navigation. In 1928, Charles Lindbergh studied with Weems before
attempting his history-making transatlantic flight. Admiral Byrd, who explored
the North and South Poles in the 1920s, came to Weems for instruction before
setting out on his Arctic exploration.

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R A t
Radio navigation, the third method of navigating, is used by almost all modern

ec
pilots. Aircraft are equipped to receive signals from the more than 400 VHF (very

tion An
high frequency) radio stations around the country. Pilots check their aeronautical
charts to see what radio station they should tune to in a particular area and then

g
in
set their equipment to receive this station’s signal. A needle on the navigation d
equipment—called VOR (Very high frequency Omnidirectional Range)—tells Rang
the pilot when the plane is on a direct course to or from the station. When a plane
drifts off course, the pilot can correct its direction.
Boats and planes use radar to detect potentially
dangerous unseen objects and to navigate near
landmarks and land. We’ve all seen radar scanners
in the movies. This is how it works. A radio
pulse is sent out by a radio instrument through
a rotating antenna, called a scanner. When the
pulse hits a target, it bounces back to the scanner.
Radar screen shot showing contacts. The instrument calculates the time difference
between transmission and reception. It converts
this information into a visual display on a monitor called a scope, which shows the
object as a point of light called a pip. The scope displays the bearing to the pip and
its distance away—the location of the object relative to the radar unit. Radar can
even track the movement of objects. This information is used to quickly produce
accurate estimated positions and fixes. Radar is especially effective for ships and
boats navigating narrow channels or areas that have many obstructions.
Special methods have been developed for navigating over long distances and
across oceans. The two most common methods are inertial guidance and LORAN.
Planes using inertial guidance have a computer and special devices that guide

Words to know
scope: a radar viewing monitor.
pip: a radar echo, a spot on a radar screen, that shows the position of a reflecting object. Also
called a blip.
inertial guidance: guidance of an aircraft or spaceship using the instruments that measure
direction and speed and a computer to maintain a predetermined course.
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Gyroscopes
Most of you have probably played with a spinning top. A gyroscope is based
on this same principle. An eighteenth-century English scientist, John Serson,
noticed that a spinning top had a tendency to remain level even when the
surface upon which it was spinning was tilting. He suggested that sailors could
use it as an artificial horizon on ships. Unfortunately,
when Serson went to sea to test this idea, the ship sank
and everyone was lost, including himself.
By the mid-nineteenth century, the spinning top
acquired the name, “gyroscope,” though not through
its use as a navigation tool. The French scientist León
Foucault named his spinning top a gyroscope, from the
Greek words gyros (revolution) and skopein (to see); he León Foucault
had used it as a visual demonstration of the earth’s rotation.
In the early twentieth century, Elmer A. Sperry developed
the first automatic pilot for airplanes using a gyroscope and
installed the first gyrostabilizer to reduce roll on ships. While
gyroscopes were not initially very successful at navigating
A gyroscope.
ocean travel, navigation is their predominant use today. They
can be found in ships, missiles, airplanes, the space shuttle, and satellites.

a plane on a predetermined course. Planes using LORAN have equipment for

receiving special radio signals that are sent out continuously from transmitting
stations. The signals indicate a plane’s exact location.
The inertial guidance system of navigation is pretty neat because it’s not only
used to guide airplanes; it’s also used on rockets, submarines, space shuttles,

Words to know
gyroscope: a spinning disk or wheel that spins freely on its base regardless of any
movement of the base.
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and missiles. Inertial guidance does not rely on any outside

Inertial navigator measures observations. A pilot doesn’t have to know about the stars or
this angle to determine
the distance between landmarks or know where to pick up radio
Points A & B or radar signals, rather, the vehicle is
Point B guided by instruments. How do
Earth’s Center inertial guidance systems work?
Gyroscopes indicate direction,
Point A
accelerometers measure changes
in speed and direction, and with
this information, a computer
constantly calculates the vehicle’s
position and guides it on its course.
Together, these instruments are called
the inertial navigator.
The inertial navigator measures how far a plane has traveled by keeping
track of changes in the position of a vertical line. This line indicates direction
to the center of the earth. Imagine two points on the earth’s surface. Now draw
lines through those points and have them meet at the earth’s center. The inertial
navigator measures the angle between the lines, which indicates the distance
between the two points. As we’ve learned before, each minute (one-sixtieth of
a degree) of angle represents a distance of one nautical mile (6,080 feet). For
example, New York City is 3,006 nautical miles from London, England. A pilot
flying from New York to London knows the plane has traveled far enough when
the vertical line of the inertial navigator has moved through an angle of 3,006
minutes, which is 50 degrees, 6 minutes.
A DAR
Inertial guidance acts as an automatic pilot. It is so accurate R
that it helps a
—

pilot land an aircraft in poor visibility conditions. Many types of military

LO R

craft, including guided missiles, submarines, and army tanks, employ inertial
P S

navigation systems. The military likes inertial navigation because the system A
G

cannot be jammed or sabotaged externally using existing military technology. N—

German scientists first used an inertial guidance system to guide their V-2

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rockets against England during World War II. In

1958, two U.S. submarines used inertial navigators
to navigate them under the Arctic ice to the North
Pole. Today, many submarines, missiles, space
shuttles, and aircraft are equipped with inertial
navigators. They’re even in some land vehicles,
like tanks.
The other common method of navigating over
long distances and across oceans, LORAN, is an
acronym for Long Range Navigation. LORAN works
by measuring the time difference in reception of radio
signals sent by remote transmitters. The type of loran
in use today is LORAN-C, where pairs of land-based German V-2 rocket launch
(above) and mobile launcher.
transmitters simultaneously send radio signals toward
each other. Special onboard LORAN receivers intercept these signals, then
calculate position by measuring the difference in the time of reception. If a plane
lies exactly halfway between the two stations (the centerline), there
g
LOn RA is no time difference between reception of the two signals. But
anywhere else, the plane receives one signal before the other
n

signal. The receiver converts the time difference between

ge

signals into a line of position. With two or more pairs

Na

of transmitters, the plane’s position can be fixed and

displayed in latitude and longitude. From the 1970s to
v

today, LORAN-C has been the principal form of electronic

i g

at
io n navigation. In the future, it may be phased out because of
widespread use of the Global Positioning System, or GPS,
which uses a satellite network to determine location. Before GPS
could be invented, though, rockets were essential.

Words to know
acronym: a word formed from the initial letters of a multi-word name, like GPS.
Sputnik: a series of Soviet satellites, from the Russian words for fellow traveler.
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The Age of Rocketry

What was the first satellite launched into space named?

A great leap in navigation occurred during and after World War II. In a top-secret
German military laboratory in the tiny
fishing village of Peenemünde on the
Baltic Sea, 20,000 scientists, engineers,
technicians, and workers perfected a
number of weapons based on rocketry.
The V-1 (also known as the doodle-bug
or the buzz-bomb) was propelled by a
jet engine and could travel 150 miles at
Nazi V-2 Rocket Motor Laboratory 360 miles per hour. The direction was
regulated by a magnetic compass and
a clock mechanism. The V-2, or guided missile, was the first modern rocket. It
rose at a 45-degree angle on a trajectory that carried it 60 miles above the earth.
The V-2 burned alcohol and liquid oxygen, and could travel a distance of 200
miles; gyroscopes guided it.
The Germans destroyed the rocket
lab when the Russians advanced
toward the area, and many of the
scientists, including a young engineer
named Wernher von Braun, sur-
rendered to the Americans, transferring
this knowledge to the fledgling Diagram of a V-2 Rocket.
American rocket program
In 1957 the Soviet Union (now Russia) shocked the world when they launched
Sputnik, the first satellite, into space. This was followed by
Sputnik 2 one month later, which carried the dog, Laika, and
Sputnik 3 six months later, which carried scientific equipment.
The space race between Russia and the United States was on!
By 1961, 42 satellites had been launched into space—
9 by Russia and 33 by the United States. On April 12, 1961, Soviet
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cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the earth. His flight lasted
108 minutes. Within weeks, Alan Shepard, Jr. became the first American to be
launched into space. His flight lasted just 15 minutes. Nine months later, on
February 20, 1962, John Glenn orbited the earth three times in a 4-hour, 55-minute-
long space flight. Glenn’s spacecraft,
Friendship 7, reached a maximum
speed of 17,549 miles per hour.
By the end of the 1960s humans
would walk on the moon, and now,
decades later, there is an international
space station used by scientists from
around the world. We have also gone
further and further from earth with Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin Aldrin facing the U.S.
flag on the lunar surface.
probing, deep-space flights to Mars,
Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter. In the past half century, we’ve gained remarkable
insight about not only the world we live on, but the universe we live in.

The GPS Revolution

In 1960 the United States Department of Defense started
exploring ways to increase the accuracy of ballistic
missiles launched from submarines. Out of this came
the development of the Global Positioning System, or
GPS. The whole system became fully operational in
1995. GPS works because there are 24 satellites orbiting
the earth at about 11,900 miles above the surface. Each
satellite is in a very precise orbit and goes around the
A ballistic missile on
the launch pad.
Words to know
ballistic missile: a missile that is guided in the first part of its trajectory, but falls freely at
the end.
Universal Transverse Mercator: a geometric coordinate that is an alternative to using
latitudes and longitudes. The advantage is that measurements are in meters rather than
degrees.
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Who was the first American to go into space?
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GPS Ground Stations

There is a GPS master control station near Colorado Springs, Colorado, located
at the Schriever Air Force Base, with five unstaffed monitor stations and three
ground antennas located throughout the world. The monitor stations track
all GPS satellites in view and collect ranging information from the satellite
broadcasts, then send the information they collect from each of the satellites
back to the master control station, which computes extremely precise satellite
orbits. The information is then formatted into updated navigation messages
for each satellite. The updated information is transmitted to each satellite
via the ground antennas, which also
Colorado Springs transmit and receive satellite control
Kwajalein
Hawaii
Ascencion and monitoring signals.
Diego Garcia

earth every 12 hours. There are also five

stations on the ground in Hawaii (Pacific
Ocean), Ascension Island (South Atlantic Ocean), Diego Garcia (Indian Ocean),
Kwajalein (Western Pacific), and Colorado Springs that monitor these satellites
to make sure they’re exactly where they’re supposed to be at all times.
GPS is used for many, many things beyond its original military application.
This system can provide your location to within less than ten feet! And it can
give the information to you in a variety of ways, the two most common being
coordinates based on latitude and longitude or coordinates based on the Universal
Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid.
How does GPS work? The satellites
constantly transmit information back
to earth by radio signal and a code.
Each satellite has an atomic clock that
allows it to send the codes at exactly
the same time. This accuracy is very
important for the functioning of GPS.
GPS satellites transmitting to ground stations.
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Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid

This system was developed to be a simple way to define a coordinate on the earth’s
surface. Like many navigational tools, UTM has a military background. After
World War II, the nations in NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
agreed that as long as each nation’s military used their own coordinate system,
it would be impossible to precisely coordinate military movements between
nations. The new system became known as the UTM system.
This grid divides the world into 60 north-south zones, each covering a strip
6 degrees wide in longitude. The zones are numbered consecutively beginning
with Zone 1, which is between 180 degrees and 174 degrees west longitude,
and progressing eastward to Zone 60 where the zones meet at 180 degrees east
longitude. Each zone is measured north and east in meters (a meter is 39 inches
or just over a yard). The “northing” (adding north) values are measured from
the equator. Developers of the grid assigned the number 10,000,000 meters to
the equator. Northing numbers larger than 10,000,000 are north of the equator;
smaller than 10,000,000 are south of the equator. Each zone is further divided
by a central meridian, which is assigned an “easting” (measuring east) value
of 500,000 meters. An easting number less than 500,000 will be west of the
central meridian in each zone, greater than 500,000 will be east of the central
meridian.
Why do we need to know all this? Because almost every aeronautical, nautical,
or topographic map you pick up will have the UTM grid overlaid on it. Some
grids will just exist as tick marks on the edges of the map—you have to draw the
lines yourself—but others will have the grid drawn in. On large-scale maps the
UTM grids are 1,000 meters or one kilometer east–west and 1,000 meters or one
kilometer north–south. This makes it easy to estimate distance because there’s
a known distance between the grid lines. Your GPS unit can give you the UTM
coordinates for a position, which you can then locate on your map.

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Universal Transverse Mercator grid of the globe.

Use of GPS is free, and the GPS user (this can be just about anyone: a hiker,
biker, fisherman, delivery person, etc.) is in control of the receiver. For the hiker,
this would be a little handheld unit that runs off two AAA batteries. When
the receiver is turned on, it listens to the radio signals and figures out
satellite location. It picks the four satellites that are currently overhead
and uses the information from these satellites to determine position
on the ground.
A whole lot of complicated calculations occur that the user
never needs to know about (thank goodness) but basically, the GPS
receiver measures the time it takes for the radio signal transmitted
from each satellite to travel to the receiver. The distance of the
GPS receiver.
satellite to the receiver can then be calculated by multiplying the
travel time by the speed of the radio waves. This is why time is so important
to GPS. The signal is traveling at 186,000 miles per second so you need a very,
very accurate stopwatch to determine time traveled. This is why there are four
satellites used to determine position—three of them are used to triangulate and
the fourth is used as a way to correct any discrepancies in the time.

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Navigation on Mars
A Mars Rover is a vehicle used to explore the surface of Mars. Since people
haven’t traveled to Mars yet, all of the Mars Rovers have been robots capable
of navigating somewhat independently of
NASA control. So far NASA has sent three
Rovers to Mars, named Sojourner, Spirit, and
Opportunity. A Mars Rover uses something
called an integrated autonomous navigation
system. The system integrates dead reckoning,
inertial navigation, and stereoscopic vision.
Using hazard avoidance software, the Rover Illustration of a Mars Rover.

stops and reassesses its location and the surrounding terrain every 10 seconds.
What’s the biggest initial obstacle the people working on Mars Rover navigation
have to overcome? The lack of magnetic poles, which prevents the use of a magnetic
compass. Once you go into space, navigating becomes much more complicated
because you can’t rely on the basic tools, like the compass used by humans for the
past several hundred years.

Determining location by GPS became even more exacting in the late 1990s with
the implementation of the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS). It works
through a series of ground stations that receive GPS signals, transmit corrected
information back to another satellite, which then goes to the GPS receiver. WAAS
reduces the margin of error and was
added to provide increased accuracy for
use by commercial airplane navigation
systems—this is particularly important
during landing. With WAAS, the
accuracy increased from being able to
pinpoint a position within about 50 feet
to within less than 10 feet.
How the WAAS system makes GPS more accurate.
118
 Navigation in Action
How to Find Your Way Using
Maps, Compasses, and GPS

S o far we have learned about people

who have dared to venture beyond the
known world. We followed Christopher
Columbus, Magellan, and Captain Cook across
vast and uncharted seas. They left the comfort
Learn how to read a
road map and what all
of their homes because they
those symbols mean
had a quest for knowledge See the difference
(of course, the prospect of between varying
finding a water route to China scales on a map
and becoming fabulously
Columbus Decipher a topographic
wealthy didn’t hurt either).
map and see what the
We’ve traveled across Arctic different contour lines
waters with a Viking and an mean
early Ice Age navigator, and
even traversed potentially Use a compass
Magellan
dangerous lands with Marco
Try geocaching
Polo and the Lewis and Clark
expedition. Now it’s time to get
out of our chairs and begin to
Cook explore the world around us.
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But how do we do that?

First we need to learn more how
to read maps. Let’s concentrate on
land maps first. There are a couple
of different kinds of maps that
you’re likely to come across: road
maps (also known as planimetric
maps), and topographic maps.
Both give a wealth of information
if you know how to read them. Example of a road map.
All maps share a couple of
things. First, look for the scale, usually
indicated along the bottom of the
map. The scale tells you how many
centimeters or inches on the map equal
kilometers or miles in real life.
Most road maps are printed on the
same size sheet of paper so they can be Example of a topographic map.
folded the same way and all fit neatly
into the glove compartment of a car. That means, if they’re maps of single states,
the scale will vary because the state will be drawn to fit the standard-size paper.
For example, since New Jersey is a much smaller state than New York, the scale
may differ so that 1 inch equals 5 miles in New Jersey and 1 inch equals 11 miles
in New York.
Second, all maps should indicate which direction is north. By convention,
north is oriented at the top of the map, but always make sure to look for an

Words to know
planimetric map: shows the horizontal position features. Sometimes called a line map.
topographic map: represents both horizontal and vertical features, either with contour lines
or spot elevations. Also called contour maps.
contour lines: curves that connect continuous points of the same altitude.
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arrow with north written by it that points in the direction north. Often, on a
topographic map, there will be one arrow pointing to geographic north, then
another arrow pointing to magnetic north, with the angle and direction of
declination written in.

Road Maps
Let’s walk through the details found on a road map.
First, look for a box on your map that is titled Legend. The legend box will
tell you some cool things about the map. At the top of the box it will say who
published the map and in what year—this
can be helpful if you want the most up-to-
date information and you see the year is
1975! Things change, including roads.
Inside the legend box you’ll get the keys
Example of a map legend. to reading the map. Along the bottom of
the box will be the scale. You can read distance in terms of inch per miles or
per kilometers.
On a New York State road map published by AAA in 2002, the legend shows
that a yellow line is a toll highway (meaning you have to pay), a fat dark-red line
is a divided highway, a thinner dark-red line is a two- or three-lane road, an even
thinner light-red line is a paved two-lane road, a line that alternates between
red and pink sections is a gravel road, and two
thin, black parallel lines designate a dirt road.
Cities are areas shaded yellow. Towns are
circles. The state capital is a black star enclosed
in a black circle. The county seat is a black
dot enclosed in a black circle. County route
numbers are in black squares. State routes are
in red ovals. U.S. routes are in red shields.
Interstate highways are blue shields with the
numbers written in white. We can also see that
Map of Georgia showing county lines.
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What is the difference between a planimetric map and a topograhic map?
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The Interstate Highway System

Nearly every interstate highway is a controlled-access superhighway or freeway,
meaning that you can’t just get on it anywhere—there are certain entry and
exit points. The interstate system was authorized during the
presidency of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He had crossed
the country as a young soldier, and he was also impressed by the
German autobahn network during his military service.
America had been building superhighways since the 1930s
but a nationwide plan to link or connect these highways created President Dwight
D. Eisenhower
the interstate system. Construction of the interstate highway
system lasted for 35 years and cost $114 billion. As of 2004, the system contains
over 42,700 miles of roads.
The numbering scheme for the highway system is administered by the
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and is
pretty cool. The major highways are given one- or two-digit route numbers. Even-
numbered highways go generally east-west, and odd-numbered highways go
generally north-south. Odd-numbered routes increase from
west to east; and even numbered routes increase from south
to north. Numbers divisible by five are roads that go all the
90 way (or nearly all the way) across the country from one
border of the United States to another. For example, I-5 runs
95
1,381 miles from Blaine, Washington, near the Canadian
border to a few miles south of San Diego at the Mexican
10 border. I-95 runs 1,921 miles from Miami to Canada along
the east coast through New England. In addition, I-10 runs
from Los Angeles, California, to Jacksonville, Florida, while
I-80 runs from San Francisco to Fort Lee, New Jersey. There is also an I-90 that
runs from Seattle to Boston, and shares a portion of its routing with I-80.

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campgrounds are designated by a little teepee

and ski areas show a little red skier shaded in
yellow.
Parks are shaded in green. Military areas
are shaded brown. Bodies of water like lakes,
A
rivers, ponds, and oceans are colored blue. The
B
name of the body of water is written either in
C
the water (look at a lake) or alongside it (look
at a stream).
Now look closely at your road map. Blue,
Map of New Hampshire—distance from dashed lines delineate counties and the county
arrow labeled “A” to arrow labeled “B” is
6 miles; from “A” to “C” is 23 miles. names are written in blue on the map. If you
follow a road—any road—you’ll see little, tiny
arrows. Find one arrow then follow the road further on and you’ll find another.
Between the two arrows is a tiny number written in red or black. This is the
number of miles between those two points. I -9 0 —
3,
1
Somewhere near the center of your road map is a stylized compass rose showing
north, which should point toward the top of your map.

13
Just by taking a quick glance at the map you can take in a lot of information.
is the

mi
First, if you want to travel across the state—east to west—you can see what roads
9
are available, and can make a decision whether to drive on a mainthighway or
0—2,90

les is
a back road. This will determine how quickly you arrive at your destination. se c o
n ge

Back roads tend to be slower because they’re only two lanes and they usually go n
through towns, meaning you’ll be slowing down to go the town speed limit and d lo
t h
8

maybe stopping at lights and stop signs. Sometimes you might like to drive the
e
-

lo
secondary (or back roads) in order to see the towns and eat in local restaurants.
ngest; I
These are the kinds of decisions the driver has to make.

planimetric . . . from the Latin planum, which means

“flat ground” and metria, “measurement”

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ACTIVITY
Using a Road Map
This activity will reinforce some of your map-reading skills and teach you how to
plot a course.

Supplies:
• Road map with your home town on it
• Piece of paper and pencil

Instructions:
• Find your hometown on the map.
• Pick a destination about six inches from your six-inch line
town.
• Look at the scale of your map.
• Fold your piece of paper in half and put it on
the map so it goes through your town and
the destination. Put tick marks on the paper
at both places and measure this distance against the scale to get an idea of
how far you have to travel.
• Look at your map and plot your course—decide which roads you’ll take to get
to your destination. Plot the straightest course possible.
• Add up the little tiny numbers on your map to get a true distance to your
destination—almost every map has these tiny numbers that represent the
distance between little points or arrows placed on each road.
• Compare your “as the crow flies” number to actual distance determined by
adding up the numbers.
The next time you’re on a road trip with your parents, offer to be the navigator.
Then use a road map and tell them the routes to take (make sure to note the
direction, i.e., Route 81 north) and which direction to turn to get to these routes.

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Sometimes you might see a lot of roads

going in more or less the same direction, say
southwest to northeast, and few roads running
perpendicular to them. Why would that be? You
also notice the streams and rivers running in the
same general direction. One thing road maps
don’t show you are hills or mountains, but you
can infer from the road patterns that there is
some kind of obstacle that determined how the
roads would be built. This is why road maps are
called planimetric maps.
Now turn your road map over. The other
side will show some part of the state in greater
detail. For example, if you have a New York
Map of Manhattan.
State map, the flip side will show Manhattan and
Long Island in greater detail. Check the legend box and notice that the scale has
changed. Instead of being 1 inch to 11 miles, the scale might go down to 1 inch
equalling 5.25 miles. That certainly makes a difference as you’re figuring out
driving time.
This side of the road map also includes an outline of the state with straight black
lines connecting the major cities. On one side of the lines are numbers written in
red—this is the distance between two points—and on the other side of the lines are
numbers written in blue—this is the average time it takes a driver to go this distance.
For example, on the New York
map, it’s 75 miles from Utica to
Schenectady and it should take
one hour, nine minutes (1:09)
to drive that distance. Going
to the west, it’s 74 miles from
Batavia to Wellsville and the
estimated driving time is one
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hour and 49 minutes (1:49). Why the big

difference to cover the same distance?
Turn over the map and notice that you
can travel on a main interstate between
Utica and Schenectady. However, going
from Batavia to Wellsville will mean
taking a state highway, then an interstate,
then another interstate, and finally a
secondary road to reach the destination.
The flip side of the road map also
includes an index or an alphabetical
listing of all the place names on the map.
Find your town, then notice that there’s
a letter-number combination following
it. Look along the left or right edge of Map of New Hampshire—find Derry at M8.
your map and notice that the alphabet
runs along the edge, each letter separated by an arrow. Now look along the top or
bottom of the map and notice consecutive numbers separated by arrows. Think
of your map being laid out like a big grid. To
locate Derry, New Hampshire, find the letter
M then run your finger across the map from
the M until it intersects with the number 8.
Derry should be within the inch square right
about where your finger stopped. Pretty
cool.
How do you know if the town you look
up on the index will be on the main side of
the map or the flip side? Notice that although
the alphabet letters on the flip side stay the
same, the numbers along the top and bottom
are higher. If the index said that Derry was at
I-91 runs north–south in Vermont
126
along the Connecticut River.
Why do maps come in varying scales?
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M-12, you would know to look on the flip side because the numbers along that
side run from 11 up.
You can also locate parks, forests, military facilities, Indian reservations, lakes
and reservoirs, and airports by using the index.
Road maps are neat and the more you look at them and understand them, the
more information you’ll be able to see. You’ll notice that towns and large highways
tend to be situated along rivers. You’ll get a feel for direction and what lies north,
south, east, or west of your town. And you’ll get a general sense of distance.
If you find yourself going on a driving trip with your parents, take out the
road map for your area. Ask your mother or father where you are right now
and then locate that position on the map. Now look for where you started from
and then look for your destination (the ending point). Locate all of these on the
map and ask your mother or father what route/road they’re planning to take.
Follow along by noticing towns you pass. Notice if the road follows a stream or
river. Look for geographic or man-made features that might show up on your
road map (for example, lakes, rivers, airports, parks, and military installations).
Also look for intersections—places where one route crosses another—to check
whether you’re right or not.
Now try to figure out which way your car is going to have to turn when you
go from one route to another. Here’s a hint. If you orient, or hold, the map in the
direction you’re traveling, sometimes it’s easier to figure out which direction
to turn. As you get better at reading maps, you’ll be able to figure out direction
without holding the map upside down or sideways.

Topographic Maps
Now that you know how to read and find your way along man-made roads,
what other kinds of maps are out there? We’ve already looked at a modern road
map, but there are other kinds of maps out there. In this section we’ll take a look
at topographic maps and learn how to read their symbols. Then we’ll learn how

Topographic comes from the Greek topo, which means

“place” and graphein . . . “to write.”
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to use a basic orienteering compass. The great part about learning how to read
a map and use a modern compass is that once you learn and master these skills,
they stick! With a topographic map and compass you can find your way around
anywhere in the world.
Topographic maps are available for most of the United States and Canada,
and are prepared by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Symbols
used on these topographic maps are similar to map symbols used around the
world, so if you can read a USGS map, chances are you can read a map from
any other country.
Maps are drawn to specific scales. The scale lets you, the map reader, know
the distance between two points, as well as the area covered by the map. Three
common scales for USGS maps are 1 unit to 250,000 units (1:250,000), 1 unit to
62,500 units (1:62,500), and 1 unit to 24,000
units (1:24,000). A unit of measurement
used on the USGS map is 1 inch. One inch
measured on a USGS topographic map
represents so many inches in the field. There
are also variations on these common scales
like 1:63,360 or 1:100,000.
1:250,000 maps—The scale of 1 inch to 1:250,000 topographic map.
250,000 inches means that 1 inch on the map
equals 4 miles in real life. Actually 253,440 inches equals 4 miles but that’s a
messy number to try to work with so it was rounded off for simplicity’s sake.
These maps cover an area of 6,346 to 8,669
square miles (depending on latitude). This is
the kind of topographic map you’d use if you
wanted to get a general idea of the geographic
features of an area. It would help you plan
your trip or hiking expedition by helping you
figure out points of interest within a distance
of about 100 miles.
1:62,500 topographic map.
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1:62,500 maps—In this map 1 inch equals 1 mile. These maps cover a range
from 195 square miles in the north to 271 square miles in the south, closer to the
equator. Can you think why these maps cover more area in the south? Think
about flat maps and Mercator projections and remember that as you travel
further north, the area gets stretched out on a map because you’re spreading
the meridians—lines of longitude—apart to keep them perpendicular to the
parallels, or lines of latitude.) These maps are very helpful for hiking because
they contain enough detail to really tell you about the terrain.
1:24,000 maps—On these maps, 1 inch equals 2,000 feet. They cover an area
ranging from 49 square miles along the Canadian border to 68 square miles in
southern Florida. These maps show the
most detail and are terrific if you’re trying
to find your way in a limited area with a
radius of about 4 miles.
The USGS has divided each state into
rectangles—what they call “quadrangles.”
A quadrangle measures 7.5 minutes of
latitude by 7.5 minutes of longitude and
1:24,000 topographic map. is designated by the name of the town or
some natural feature found within the area.
You can request a Topographic Map Index Circular of the state you’re interested
in and a booklet about topographic maps from the USGS.

re e e
Reading Your Topographic Map d eg qu
1
In order to read your map, break it down into the five Ds—description, details,
a
ls
directions, distances, and designations.
il
es take
mso let’s
6

Description—The description of your map is found in its margin,

d
0 nauti

a trip around the edge of the map.

lan

First, the name of your map area is found along the top (north edge) of your
map. This name is repeated at the bottom with the number of the map. You’ll
69

also find names in parentheses on each edge–these are the names of the maps
c

r a
o lm
iles
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te
inu so o
S

m
immediately adjacent. So if you’re planning a hike or a trip that extends off the

n
a

map, you 1
know the next map you need to look for.

es
0 fe
onds in

1 map also tells you where you are in the world by giving you your
Your

ec o n d
et
bout
longitude and latitude numbers. As we know, the lines of longitude (or meridian
lines) run north–south, whereas the lines of latitude (parallels) run east–west.
You’ll find tiny numbers in the margins that
eq
uals a
sec

look something like 73°22’30” that you would

read as “73 degrees, 22 minutes, 30 seconds.”
60

If you remember, we’ve learned that 1 degree

equals 60 nautical miles or 69 land miles.
There are 60 minutes in a degree so 1 minute
equals 6,080 feet, and there are 60 seconds in a
minute so one second equals about 101 feet.
Along the bottom, or south edge, of your
map are some dates. It might read something
like utic photographs taken 1948.
na“Aerial Field
0 a and then to the right
6 check 1952–53,” there
s
l

might be a single date like “1953.” This would

l
gree equa

mi

tell you that the map you’re looking at was

les or
miles

developed from aerial photos one year, then

checked by surveyors in subsequent years
(1952–53 in our example). Then the single date is the edition of your map.
69
la nd
Why is this stuff important? Well, if your map covers an area with a town in
an m
d e

it, there could be a lot more houses added to the town in the past half-century.
-
1

Also, natural features could change. A dam could have been built across the river
m

a
that shows up in your map, creating a lake. A swamp could have beenvdrained.
le
A
ad

e things before t
new road could have been built. You shouldn’t worry about these
io

e, wat
and

you go out into the field, but you should be aware that things do change.
n

Details—The details on your topographic map include man-made, water,

,

vegetation, and elevation features. All of these have symbols associated with them
n

r e

,v
o

and you have to be able to remember what these symbols stand for. Luckily, whoever
egetati
130
What do the quadrangles of the USGS maps represent? How many miles by how many miles?
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How to Read a Topographic Map

Here’s one way to start to try and understand contour lines. Imagine taking a
cone and dipping it—large end first—into a pail of water so that one inch of
the cone is submerged. Take the cone out, draw a line with a marker where the
watermark ends. You should have a circle going around the cone. Dip the cone in
so that it’s submerged an inch beyond the first watermark. Take the cone out and
draw another line where the second watermark ends. You should have two lines
an inch apart, encircling the cone. Do this several more times, putting the cone in
an inch further each time. Now look at the cone
from above. What do you see? You should see
several concentric circles. If you saw concentric
circles on a topographic map, you would know
you’re looking at a cone-shaped feature.
This sounds more complicated than it really
is, but reading contour lines does take practice.
There are some general rules you can follow,
however, which should make it easier to envision
what you see on the map as three-dimensional objects.
If adjacent contour lines are spaced far apart and are fairly evenly spaced,
then you’re looking at a broad, gentle slope. When lines are close together, then
you’re looking at a hill—the closer the lines are, the steeper the slope, until
they’re right on top of one another, which would indicate a cliff.
If your topographic map is of a hilly or mountainous area, you’ll notice that
a number of contour lines may make a V shape. Where contour lines cross a
river or stream, they make a V with the point of the V pointing uphill. You may
also notice contour lines that are U-shaped. If the U points downhill, it’s a spur
on a hill or mountain. If the U points slightly uphill, you’re looking at a broad,
glacial valley.

131
Name the four types of topographic map symbols and their corresponding colors.
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ACTIVITY
Match Contour Maps to Hill Profiles
This exercise will help you to become more familiar with how a two-dimensional
map can translate to a three-dimensional topographic figure. (Hint: lines that are
close together represent steep slopes.)

A
1

B
2

C 3

D 4

5
E

F 6

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ACTIVITY
Understanding Contour Lines
In this activity you’ll make a cross-section or a profile of a contour map. The goal
is to eventually be able to look at a topographic map and see not just squiggly
lines, but the shapes of the features the contour lines represent.

Supplies:
• Piece of graph paper
• Pencil
• Ruler

Instructions:
• Transfer the points designated by the letters from the map below to your
graph paper. The scale along the bottom edge of your graph should be the
same as that on the map below. Make every two or three horizontal lines on
your graph paper equal to 20 feet for your vertical scale. This map represents
an island, so points A and J are at sea level (0 feet).
• After creating your profile, answer the following question: If you were hiking
on this island, which side would you choose to climb in order to reach the
summit?

A
B C D 93
E F G 112 H I J

1 2 3 6
Scale in Miles
Contour Interval is 20 feet 133
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came up with the symbols

Stream
made them look like tiny Shown in blue
Boundary or Right-of-Way Line
pictograms of what they’re Shown in black
Paved Road
portraying, for example, a Shown in black
Unpaved or Gravel Road
church shows up as a tiny Shown in black
Trail
circle with a cross on top. Shown in black

Each of the four types Railroad

Shown in black
of map symbols has its Abandoned Railroad
Shown in black
own distinctive color:
Dam
man-made features are Shown in black

black; water features are Hedge

Shown in green
blue; vegetation features
Marsh
are green; and elevation Shown in blue
Woods
features are brown. Man- Shown in green

made features include

Individual Tree
roads and trails, houses, Shown in green

buildings, railroads, power Some samples of contour map symbols with their corresponding color.

lines, dams, and bridges.

Water includes rivers, canals, lakes, oceans, swamps, and marshes. Typical
vegetation features include woods and orchards.
Being able to figure out the elevation features, marked by brown contour lines,
are why most people use topographic maps. When you first look at a topographic
map, it just looks like a mess of brown lines, but the placement of these lines
gives you an enormous amount of information.
A contour line is an imaginary line on the ground where every point on that line
is at the same height above sea level. The distance between each contour line is
called a contour interval and can vary from map to map depending on how hilly
or level the land is. The contour interval will always be written along the bottom
border of your map. It will say something like “CONTOUR INTERVAL 20 FEET.”
Every fifth contour line will be a bolder, heavier line and is called an index
contour line. A number written on the line—something like 800—indicates that

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the index contour line represents a line 800 feet above sea level. Then you’ll find
four lighter brown lines before you see the next index contour line with 700 or
900 written on it (depending on whether you’re gaining or losing elevation).
Often, you’ll see precise elevation numbers next to mountain peaks, road
intersections, or lakes. These indicate the elevation of the feature given to the
nearest foot.
The key to interpreting contours is to be able to visualize them in three
dimensions. Try to see more than just a bunch of squiggly brown lines to get a
sense of the overall topography
of the area. First, look for low
spots by looking for contour
lines with the lowest numbers
(closest to sea level). Follow one
index contour line around the
map and note where it goes.
Contour lines don’t ever cross
each other. They can be on top
of each other (as in a sheer cliff)
but they cannot cross. So look
Elevation markings.
for the next index contour line,
read the number, and then you’ll
know whether you’re going up in elevation or down. Start noticing the Vs for the
streams. Contour lines that form closed shapes indicate that you’re coming to the
top (or the bottom) of some geographic feature such as a peak of a mountain.
Practice, practice, practice.
Directions—As with most maps, on contour maps north is oriented at the top,
south is at the bottom, west is left, and east is right. If you look at the bottom of
your topographic map you’ll find a little diagram with an elongated triangle in
it. One leg of the triangle will be marked “true north,” the other will be marked
“magnetic north,” and there will be a degree written between the two. This
diagram is labeled “Approximate Mean Declination.” Don’t worry about this

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right now. We’ve already learned that

there’s a difference between true north
and magnetic north. USGS has gone
to the trouble of letting us know what 14.5°

the declination, or deviation, is for that

H
TRUE NORTH
particular quadrangle so that we can

NORT
set our compasses properly.

NETIC
You want to be able to draw a line

MAG
from point A to point B on your map
(where you want to begin and where APPROXIMATE MEAN
DECLINATION
you want to end), then have that line
correspond to a compass direction.
Why? So that when you’re actually in
the field with a map in one hand and
compass in the other, you’ll be able to
figure out which direction to walk.
Distances—Remember when you looked at the information found in the margin
of your topographic map? One of the pieces of information you discovered was
the scale, written as 1:250,000, 1:62,500, or 1:24,000. Remember that this tells you
how many inches in the field correspond to one inch on the map. For example,
if it is 3.5 inches from point A to point B and the scale is 1:62,500 (1 inch equals 1
mile) then we know that the distance between point A and point B equals three
and one half miles.
Another way to measure distance is to use the map’s bar scale. You’ll find it
along the bottom edge of your map and it will be calibrated in miles, feet, yards,
meters, or kilometers. Draw a line from point A to point B on your map, then
measure the length of the line with the ruler and compute the distance. Another
way to determine the distance is to take the edge of a piece of paper and mark off
where point A is and where point B is on the paper’s edge. Then hold the paper
to the bar scale and figure out the distance.
Why should we care about the distance from point A to point B? For one thing,

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it’s nice to know how far

you’re going to walk
before you set out on
your hike. Depending
on the topography of
the area—whether you
have to walk up some
hills and through some
gorges or if the terrain is
fairly flat—you should
be able to figure out how
long it might take you to
cover the distance.
You should figure out the number of minutes it takes you to cover one mile under
different circumstances: road, field, woods, and mountains. You should also know
the number of paces it takes you to cover a certain distance (you count a pace as
every two steps or by always counting every time your right foot hits the ground).
This gives you two different ways to estimate distance out in the field—either by
how much time has passed since you started walking or by counting paces.
Designations—Suppose you’re hiking and want to meet up with a friend at
point B. When describing where point B is, you’d look for the nearest place-name
designation, for example, the name of a mountain, lake, stream, boundary line,
or town.
If point B is not near someplace with a place name designation, find the nearest
word printed on your map and describe point B’s position in reference to that.
Let’s say point B is a mile and a half from Huckleberry Mountain. You would
tell your friend something like the following: 1½ inches southwest of the H in
Huckleberry Mountain, and your friend would be able to locate point B.
Remember that you and your friend need to be using the same edition of
the topographic map or else you could get confused—place names could have
changed or disappeared altogether, or be printed differently on the map.

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orienteer
S

, in
wto Use an Orienteering
How
ro Compass

g
ar

We’ve learned about the origins of the magnetic compass and how this little
n of

lin
io enough
nteering

instrument—small
direct to fit in the palm of your hand—changed our view of

trave

es, com
the world by opening up the seas and unknown lands to exploration. Now we’re
ro w
going to learn how to use a compass and embark on our own explorations.
l ar
A modern orienteering compass sits on a clear plastic rectangular
,

pa
e

base plate that’s calibrated on its sides with scales that correspond
l
ie

s n ee d s
to those found on topographic maps. For example, you
or

can use an orienteering compass as a ruler to measure

distance on maps with one side for maps scaled at
1:24,000 and the other for 1:62,500. One edge is
in inches. There’s also an arrow from the actual
compass to the opposite edge of the base plate. That’s
the direction-of-travel arrow.
The compass itself consists of a magnetic compass needle with one end
painted red that always points to magnetic north. On the plastic underneath
the magnetic compass needle is another red arrow called an orienteering arrow
and a series of black, parallel
Direction-of-Travel INCHES ¹⁄₂ 1 1¹⁄₂
lines called orienteering lines.
Arrow
You line up your compass needle
10MM

Base Plate
with the orienteering arrow by
moving the black compass dial
20

that surrounds the compass

needle. Rotate the dial until the
30

READ BEARING
HERE

needle is inside the orienteering

45°
NE

Orienteering
40

E
°

arrow. You have found north.

90

Arrow
°
N0
°

Magnetic north, to be precise.

360

SE
5°
13

Magnetic Compass Now notice that the outer ring

Compass Housing
31 NW

Needle of the black compass dial (called

5°

0°
S18

the compass housing) is calibrated

W
0°

5°
70

27

SW
22

from 0 to 360. These are the

Orienteering
Lines
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W E Chapter Seven: Navigation in Action

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1¹⁄₂
5°
SE 13 0°
S 18
You want to get 90
E
°

to this hilltop 5°
22

READ BEARING
1
SW

HERE
°
45
NE
° 0
27

¹⁄₂
W
0°
0° N 5°
36 NW 31

INCHES
number of degrees in a circle. The inner ring
10MM 20 30 40 70

has eight cardinal points notated (N, NE, E,

Turn compass housing
etc.), or the cardinal points may be on the ring

1¹⁄₂
with the degree markings.
5°
SE 13 0°
S 18
°
90
E
How do you find direction with an 5°

READ BEARING
1
22
SW

HERE
orienteering compass? Hold the compass at
°
45
NE
0°

¹⁄₂
27
W

about waist level. Now point the direction-

0°
0° N 5°
36 NW 31

INCHES
10MM 20 30 40 70

of-travel arrow toward a prominent object in

the landscape (like a big tree or some rocks
on a distant hill). Turn the compass housing

1¹⁄₂
SW225°
S1
80
°

so that the red compass needle is over the

270
W°
135
SE°

READ BEARING
1
orienteering arrow on the base plate. This

HERE
315
°
NW
9
E 0°
¹⁄₂

will properly orient your compass. Now read NE 45° 0°

°N
360

the number off the compass housing—this is

INCHES

10MM 20 30 40 70

called your bearing. Compass needle lines up with

orienteering arrow
Following a bearing with an orienteering
compass is easy. Suppose you want to walk to a distant hilltop. Hold your
compass at waist level and point the direction-of-travel arrow toward the hilltop.
Move the compass housing so that the compass needle is over the orienteering
arrow on the base plate. Note the compass bearing. Start walking in the direction
of the hill. DO NOT MOVE THE COMPASS HOUSING ONCE YOU BEGIN TO
WALK.
You are able to stay on course by checking that you’re still oriented in the right
direction. Frequently check your bearing by stopping and holding your compass
at waist height and making sure that the compass needle and orienteering arrow
are lined up. Do this by turning your whole body to align the compass needle
with the orienteering arrow. Note your bearing. Then walk in the direction of

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ACTIVITY
S

INC

⁄₂
HE

1¹
S
10
MM

¹⁄₂

1
20

¹⁄₂
30

S
1¹

HE
⁄₂

INC
40

RE

G
10

N
A H

MM
D ER

ER RI
Traveling by Compass
N
BE

E
H BEA
E
A

SE
NE RI

D
E
N

A
RE
G

20

NE
NW
E

S
30
70

N
W

40

SW
SE

NW
SW

W
S

70
This activity will test your skill with a compass.

Supplies:
• One quarter
• An orienteering compass

Instructions:
• Go out into a flat field.
• Place a quarter on the ground at your feet.
• Choose a number between 0 degrees and 120 degrees.
• Set your compass by turning the compass housing until your number is at
the direction-of-travel arrow (i.e., 45 degrees).
• Line up your magnetic compass needle with the north orienteering arrow
by holding your compass at waist level in front of you and slowly turning
your body.
• Look up and find a landmark in the direction you’ve chosen and walk toward
it for 20 paces, which should be around 100 feet, then stop.
• Look at your compass and add 120° to your original number. Move your
compass housing to register the new number. Hold your compass in front of
you and slowly turn your body until the arrows align.
• Look up and find a landmark in the new direction and walk toward it for 20
paces, then stop.
• Do this a third time, then stop and look down. Is your
quarter at your feet?

You’ve just walked the three legs of an equilateral

triangle.
Start & End
07

S
SW
W
WN

SE
WS

W
04

E
07

S
03

NW
EN

NE
ER
02
G

N
N

A EH
ER EB

ES
IR

IR ER
EH
A

EB

E
D

M
M
A

N
01
ER

G
04

NI
HC
₂⁄¹

SE
1
03

₂⁄¹
1
02

1
₂⁄¹
M
M
01

140
SE

1
₂⁄¹
HC
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W E Chapter Seven: Navigation in Action

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your direction-of-travel arrow. If you lose sight of the hilltop, don’t worry. Line
up your red arrows, find an object in front of you that lies on that bearing, then
walk toward it. Do this repeatedly until you see your hilltop again. Remember
not to move the housing dial.
When you want to travel back to your original location, do not move your
compass housing to take another bearing (you probably won’t even be able to see
your original starting place). Rather, turn the base plate of the compass around so
that the direction-of-travel arrow points toward you. Then turn your whole body
until the north arrows line up. Then walk against the direction-of-travel arrow,
taking frequent sightings to keep your compass orientation in line with your
destination. DO NOT MOVE THE COMPASS HOUSING while you’re making
your way back to where you started.
Remember from our earlier discussion on the development of the compass
that there are actually two norths. Your compass always points to magnetic north,
which is not the same as geographic north. Maps are drawn using geographic
or true north. At the bottom of any topographic map is the declination, or the
angle between magnetic and true north, which will vary depending on where you
are. Most orienteering compasses have a way to manually correct your compass
for this angle. Some compasses have a tiny key attached to the neck cord. This
key turns a little screw on the back of the compass that will shift the compass
housing to the correct declination and this will line up the orienteering lines with
the declination. This is the easiest way to deal with the difference between true and
magnetic north. You must, however, remember to reset your declination for every
topographic map you use; otherwise, you can be way off in your course plotting.
Another way to deal with declination is to add or subtract the number of
degrees shown on the map and then turn the compass housing that many degrees
before you begin any map reading. If the declination is west, add the number of
degrees (remember, “west is best” best meaning something has been added). If the
declination is east, subtract the number of degrees (remember, “east is least”).

West is best = add

East is least = subtract
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Another way is to draw lines directly onto

your map that line up with the declination.
Look at the little arrow on the bottom of the
map that shows true north and magnetic
north and then draw lines across your map
that line up with magnetic north. Now
when you put your compass on top of the
map with the lines drawn on them, you line

1¹⁄₂
SW
S

up the orienteering lines with those drawn W

lines.

READ BEARING
SE

HERE
NW

Although there are several different E

¹⁄₂
kinds of compasses, use an orienteering NE
N

INCHES
10MM 20 30 40 70

compass for a couple of reasons. First, these

compasses are fairly inexpensive (under 10
1¹⁄₂
S
dollars). Second, an orienteering compass SW

SE
is easy to use, particularly in combination

READ BEARING
1

HERE
with topographic maps. The calibrated E
NW
¹⁄₂

rulers on the sides of the base plate are NE

N
wonderful because they allow you to
INCHES

10MM 20 30 40 70

compute distances between points easily. Using the map above, the declination is 14.5°E.
Therefore, you will “subtract” 14.5 degrees
These compasses were developed using the rotating compass housing on your
for orienteering competitions, or races. orienteering compass.
Originally a navigational and map-reading
exercise used by the Swedish army in the early part of the twentieth century,
orienteering has grown into a global sport. An
orienteering race can be an activity for people
of all different skill levels of navigating. There
are several different kinds of orienteering
races but they all involve using topographic
maps, compasses, and control points (these are
numbered stations along the course where you

142 Calculating bearings at an

orienteeering competition.
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punch or stamp a card that you carry with you). In the highly competitive cross-
country orienteering races, it takes quick thinking, excellent map-reading and
compass-reading skills, as well as athletic ability to do well.
Using a map and compass together, which is the basis of orienteering and off-
trail hiking, is really fun once you get the hang of it. First you have to orient your
map with your compass. Set your compass so that the orienteering arrow and
360-degree mark are aligned. Now lay your compass on your map and turn the
map until your compass points to north.
Find your beginning point and your first destination. Set the straightedge of
your compass along the line between the two points. Your compass needle will
still be pointing to north (it always does), but don’t worry about that. Draw a
line between the two points. Now turn the compass housing so that the black
orienteering lines underneath the compass needle lie parallel to a meridian line
(a north-south line) on your map. Read the degree that’s on the compass housing
at the direction-of-travel arrow (which is parallel to the straightedge between the
two points). This is your first bearing. Let’s say it’s 224 degrees. Write “224°” on
the line. You can repeat this for your other destination points.
When you get to your start point in the field, set your compass to your first bearing
by turning the compass housing until 224 degrees is aligned with the direction-of-
travel arrow. Hold your compass in your hand at waist level with the direction-of-
travel arrow facing out. Now turn your entire body until the red compass needle
is lined up with the orienteering arrow beneath it. Pick a landmark—something
like a tree, rock, or bush—in front of you and walk toward it. When you reach your
landmark take another sighting
with your compass and choose
another landmark that lines up with
224 degrees. Continue this until you
reach your destination.
Make sure you measure the
distance between the points on your
map. Either use the straightedge
Meridian lines.
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ACTIVITY
S

Working with a Topographic Map

Plot a course of travel using the map to the right. Pretend you have to punch a
card at each of the four checkpoints, so accuracy counts. Remember to orient your
compass before you start.
Supplies:
• Orienteering compass
• Ruler
• Pencil

Instructions:
Checkpoint 1: find the T in the road ½ inch NE of the “d” in Tompkins-Cortland
Community College.
Checkpoint 2: 2M\, inches NE to the cemetery.
Checkpoint 3: 3 inches NW to the road junction of Malloryville Road and the road
that Ts into it south of Beaver Pond.
Checkpoint 4: 2Z\v inches SW to road junction of Dutcher and North Roads.
Then head back to the beginning spot, which is 4 inches SE from
checkpoint 4.

• Figure out the compass bearing for each leg of your journey. Your first bearing
should be around 42 degrees.
• Figure out how many feet you have to travel on each leg. Remember that the scale
is 1:24,000 so 1 inch equals 2,000 feet. Convert your answer to miles (remember,
5,280 feet equals 1 mile).
• When you look at your beelines (the most direct route) to each checkpoint, do
you see a better way to travel? Try to imagine the topography and then make it
work for you. Sometimes it makes more sense to traverse the sides of hills along
one contour rather than dipping in and out of gullies. Sometimes it also makes
more sense to travel along roads or to follow creeks.

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Scale is 1:24,000 Assume magnetic and geographic north are the same. N

145
How many feet are in a mile?
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that already conforms to the scale of your map, or measure the distance and then
convert it to the scale. This will let you know how far you have to walk—a pretty
important detail when you’re in the field.
There are other ways to use your compass. Say you have been hiking along, but
you don’t know exactly where you are relative to the map. Look for a landmark—
a bend in the river, a distinctively tall peak, or a building like a church. You can
take a bearing on the landmark and transfer that information to your map. From
where you’re standing, hold the compass at waist level, pointing the direction-
of-travel arrow toward the landmark. Now turn the compass housing until the
two north arrows (the compass needle and the orienteering arrow) coincide.
Read the bearing.
Place the direction-of-travel
arrow on the landmark on the
map and then orient the map INCHE
S
¹⁄₂
1

10MM
1¹⁄₂

toward north making sure the

20
north arrows coincide. Make

30
READ
BEAR
HERE ING

40
sure the black orienteering lines NW
NE

W E

beneath the compass needle are SW SE

70

parallel to the meridian lines on S

1
the map. Slide your compass so
you can draw a line using your
straightedge, which is parallel
to the direction-of-travel arrow. You are standing somewhere on that line.
If you want to know exactly where you are on that line, you can triangulate,
or find your position on the map by taking a bearing off another landmark, and
repeat the process in the above paragraph. When you draw the second line on
the map, it should cross the first one. Where it crosses should be pretty close to
where you’re standing.

Using GPS
A handheld GPS receiver can be very helpful with three basic tasks. First,
information from your GPS can help lead you to a destination on a map (a paper
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ACTIVITY
Go on a Treasure Hunt
This is a group activity although two can make it work just fine. This activity
needs to be done in two steps.

Supplies:
• Directional compasses
• Small notebook
• Pencil
• 8 to 10 small objects for treasures

Instructions:
• One group or person is responsible for determining the course and placing the
treasures and the other group or person follows the directions and retrieves
the treasures. Both groups can hide treasures and make maps in separate
areas and then switch treasure maps and find the other group’s treasures.
• Decide how much territory you want to cover. Make it reasonable. Maybe just
use your backyard or a couple of hundred yards around your house.
• Choose a starting place, then determine the direction you’re going to head
by consulting your compass. Walk to your first destination. Count your paces.
When you get there, write “Destination 1” in your notebook and note the
compass bearing and the number of paces (remember: a pace is determined
by counting every right or left footfall). Put a small object in plain sight at the
destination, something like a colorful small toy (a yoyo, for example, or a plastic
egg filled with jellybeans) and note what the object is in your notebook.
• Repeat this step until you have 8 to 10 destinations noted in your notebook.
Your last destination and your starting place should be the same.
• The second group then takes the notebook and a compass and tries to find
all of the objects on the treasure hunt by setting each course and counting
paces.

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map or an electronic map built into the receiver

or downloaded from your computer).
Second, a GPS receiver can determine
your current position by providing you with
either latitude and longitude coordinates
or UTM coordinates. You can then locate
your position on a map. And third, you can
program your GPS to remember your current
position so you can return to it later.
As a navigational tool, the GPS receiver can
give you a lot of information including distance between points, your speed,
a desired course, your current course, and travel time. It can even calculate your
estimated time of arrival as well as how much time you’ve spent hiking. It will
also keep track of where you’ve been, which is enormously helpful for search
and rescue units.
A coordinate on a GPS receiver is called a waypoint or a landmark. Your
receiver can store hundreds of waypoints in its memory, which can then be
retrieved when you need them. You might create a dozen waypoints for a day
hike—labeling and keeping track of them as you go along. Your receiver will also

Goto
have a built-in map screen that you can tie into your waypoint list.
The coolest function of a GPS receiver is the “Goto” function. Your GPS can
actually guide you to your destination using a steering screen. Other information
connected to the Goto function includes whether you’re on course, how much
you have to correct your course, what your speed is, and how long it should take
you to arrive at your destination.
Remember the problem with using a compass and having to correct for an
area’s declination? You can set your GPS receiver to either magnetic or true north.
If you’re using your GPS in conjunction with a map of the area, you might want
to set it to true north so that it is in harmony with your map. But, if you’re also

Words to know
waypoint: a significant point on a journey, where the traveler can stop or change course.
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using a compass that you haven’t automatically corrected for declination, you
might want to set the GPS unit for magnetic north so your compass bearings and
your GPS bearings are in synch. You can certainly switch back and forth between
functions—just remember which one you’re using.
Whenever you’re navigating by GPS, you need to remember that, as with
any piece of equipment, things can go wrong. The batteries
could run low or run out (pack an extra set); you could
have a hard time getting a reading from the satellites;
you could lose your receiver or damage it; and/
or it could get wet. The point is, it’s not smart to
rely on this one piece of equipment for all of your
navigational needs. You need to have a backup
plan, and the tools to implement it.
You’ve learned how to use a topographic map
and a compass. Bring them along and get used
to plotting the coordinates you take by GPS on
the map. Use your compass to test whether the
compass readings you take match those recorded
by GPS. Plot your route on the map—use both
UTM coordinates and latitude and longitude coordinates to see how closely
they correspond. Before you use the map with the GPS unit, remember to check
all of the settings on your receiver. Look for the map datum notated along the
bottom edge of your map (this is the reference point your map was drawn
from—probably something like North American Datum 1927 or NAD 27).
Select the units by deciding whether you’re going to be using nautical miles or
statute (land) miles. Check which kind of coordinates you’ll be using—UTM
or latitude and longitude. Set your receiver to either true north or magnetic
north—particularly important when you coordinate your readings with those
taken from a compass, which you know measures magnetic north. And make
sure WAAS is turned on for increased accuracy.

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Conclusion
In this book we’ve traveled across time from the Ice Age to the Space Age and
across geography from Micronesia to Africa. On our journey we’ve not only
learned about the history and science of navigation, we’ve also learned how to
apply some of those principles so that we can find our own way in the world.
You should be able to read a map of the world and understand the importance

ACTIVITY
Going on a Treasure Hunt with GPS
This will test your GPS skills and is fun to boot.

Supplies:
• GPS unit
• Internet access
• Notebook
• Pencil
• Something to leave in a cache

• Log onto www.geocaching.com and read about the sport of finding hidden
treasures using your GPS unit. Read the FAQ section in “getting started.” Back
on the homepage, type your zip code into the search engine to find geocaches
hidden near you. Here’s one of the entries the author found. This cache is called
“Barrel of Monkeys.”

Difficulty: HHH Terrain:HHH

This cache is hidden in the Cornell University Natural Area known as Monkey Run.
The path is a part of the Cayuga Trails club system and Cornell’s Plantations. It runs
along both sides of Fall Creek and there are some beautiful vistas to enjoy along the
way. The paths can be muddy in spots, and the woods are buggy in summer.

150
Name five types of information that a GPS unit can give you.
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of latitude and longitude. You should also be able to read a road map and a
topographic map so that you can not only find your way to the next state but
can also understand the kinds of hills and valleys you’ll encounter if you decide
to take a hike in a wilderness area. You can use these skills—of reading maps, of
using a compass, of understanding a GPS unit—for the rest of your life.
So the next time you take a trip, take along a map and maybe even a compass
or a GPS unit and have fun!

There are two approaches to the cache:

A) Park at N 42°28.305’ W 076°25.835’, just off Hwy 13 on Hanshaw Rd. From
here you’ll walk about 0.5 mile to reach the cache. You can go most all the way
on main paths, the incline is only moderate, with only a little bushwhacking
at the end. It is this route that is rated above as 2.5 terrain, and it is
appropriate for kids and dogs.

B) Park at N 42°27.789’ W 076° 25.628’ at the end of Monkey Run Road just
off Hwy 366. You can park in the areas marked as “snowplow turnaround”
when there is no snow to be plowed. You’ll approach the cache from the
south instead of the north. By this route you’ll walk only about 0.25 mile,
but you must cross over the I-beams of an abandoned bridge (N 42°27.897’
W 076°25.620’). This requires hoisting oneself up onto the bridge, and
balancing or scooting across the foot-wide I-beams. A fairly strenuous
feat, it is not recommended for small children or those not athletically
inclined. Dogs would not be able to cross the bridge, but they could
swim/wade across if the creek is not running too fast (as could a person).

The cache is in a large ammo box. It started out filled with a barrel of monkeys
(take a monkey not the whole barrel!).

Find a cache near you and start to have fun!!

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Geocaching
Geocaching (pronounced GEO—as in geography—CASHING—as in a hiding
place or something hidden) is a really fun activity or game that has developed since
GPS units came on the scene. It’s like a modern-day treasure hunt. Objects are
hidden and then the coordinates are sent to a geocache web site (like geocaching.
com). Say you’re going to visit Central New York State with your family. You could
go to the web site and find out where geocaches are in that area. Or you can find
out where geocaches are hidden near your home.
Sounds easy. What could be so difficult? You’ve got the
coordinates, you’ve got a GPS unit, you’ve got a map,
so it seems like you could just plug in the coordinates
and go. But it’s not so simple. Once you get to the site,
you still have to find the treasure, which is often very
Geocaching map.
cleverly hidden. There are very simple rules: you can take
something from the cache, but you have to leave something in its place. Then you
have to write about it in the logbook.
What’s in a cache? A cache always has a logbook, which is left by the“founder”
of the cache (the person who puts it there in the first place). A logbook can contain
information about the cache, about nearby caches, jokes, or even clues or coordinates
about caches that aren’t published on the Internet. Visitors to the cache then sign
the logbook. Many cache founders put their treasures in a waterproof plastic
bucket. In addition to the logbook, the bucket/cache might contain CDs, videos,
pictures, money, jewelry, games, and so forth. It’s common to find the individual
items placed in ziplock plastic bags to protect them. Remember the rule—if you
take something from a cache, you have to leave something in return.
One neat thing that’s developed since geocaching began is the “hitchhiker.”
This is an object in a cache that’s supposed to be moved from cache to cache and
then recorded in the logbook and online.

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Glossary
S

astrolabe: an instrument used to calculate latitude.

BCE: refers to before the common era, a modern term for BC.
bearing: a direction or a path.
CE: refers to common era, a modern term for AD.
celestial: relating to the stars.
chronometer: a very accurate portable clock used to determine longitude.
Clovis points: spear points found near Clovis, New Mexico.
conformal maps: preserves both the angles and shapes of small figures.
contour lines: curves that connect continuous points of the same altitude.
coordinates: numbers that identify a position.
declination: comparable to latitude, measured in degrees north of the equator.
degrees: one minute equals one nautical mile and 60 minutes equals one degree.
equal-area map: the scale remains the same anywhere on the map
Greenwich mean time: the local time at 0 degrees longitude, the prime meridian.
inertial guidance: guidance of an aircraft or spaceship using the instruments that
measure direction and speed and a computer to maintain a predetermined course.
International Date Line: an imaginary north-south line at approximately 180 degrees
in the Pacific Ocean; where each calendar day begins.
land mile: 5,280 feet
latitude: east-west parallel lines that encircle the earth north and south of the equator.
longitude: north-south lines that converge at the North and South Poles, and are
measured in degrees east and west of the prime meridian.
magnetic deviation: the error of a compass due to local magnetic disturbances.
nautical mile: a mile at sea, measures approximately 6,080 feet
nautical: relating to the sea.
planimetric map: shows the horizontal position features. Sometimes called a line map.
prime meridian: the starting point for reckoning longitude at Greenwich, England.
sextant: an instrument used to measure how high the sun is above the horizon. The
angle and the time it is measured can be used to calculate latitude.
summer solstice: when the sun is at its farthest point from the equator, in the Northern
Hemisphere on June 21.
topographic map: represents both horizontal and vertical features, either with contour
lines or spot elevations. Also called contour maps.
Universal Transverse Mercator: a geometric coordinate that is an alternative to using
latitudes and longitudes. Measurements are in meters rather than degrees.
waypoint: a significant point on a journey where the traveler can stop or change course.
zenith: the highest point reached in the heavens by the sun, moon, or a star.

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Resources
Adult’s Books
Fritz, Jean. Around the World in a Hundred Years: From Henry the Navigator to Magellan, Putnam,
1998
Gurney, Alan. Compass: A Story of Exploration and Innovation (W.W. Norton & Co., 2004).
Horwitz, Tony. Blue Latitudes: Boldly going where Captain Cook has Gone Before (Henry Holt &
Company LLC, 2002).
Kjellstrom, Bjorn. Be Expert with Map & Compass: The Complete Orienteering Handbook (Hungry
Minds, Inc., 1994).
Letham, Lawrence. GPS Made Easy: Using Global Positioning Systems in the Outdoors, 4th ed. (The
Mountaineers, 2003).
Severin, Tim. The China Voyage: Across the Pacific by Bamboo Raft (London: Little, Brown, 1994).
Severin, Tim. Tracking Marco Polo (Peter Bedrick Books, 1986).
Sherman, Eric. Geocaching: Hike and Seek with your GPS (Apress, 2004).
Wilford, John Noble. The Mapmakers: The story of the great pioneers in cartography—from Antiquity
to the Space Age (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1981).
Children’s Books
Armstrong, Jennifer. Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World : The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton
and the Endurance, (Crown Books for Young Readers, 2000).
Harmon, Daniel. Robert Peary: And the Quest for the North Pole (Chelsea House Publications, 2001).
Herbert, Janis. Lewis and Clark for Kids: Their Journey of Discovery With 21 Activities. (Chicago
Review Press, 2000).
Johnson, Sylvia. Mapping the World. (Atheneum, 1999).
MacDonald, Fiona. Marco Polo: A Journey Through China (Franklin Watts, 1998).
Matthews, Rupert. Explorer (DK Children, 2005).
Stott, Carole, and Gorton, Steve. Space Exploration (DK Children, 2004).

Web Sites
www.geocaching.com
www.eduscapes.com/geocaching/kids.htm
www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/longitude
www.trimble.com/gps/
www.boatsafe.com/kids/navigation.htm
www.usgs.gov
www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/articles/fall01/navigators/navigators.html
www.asij.ac.jp/elementary/links/currlink/exploration.htm
www.celestialnavigation.net
www.polarization.com
www.lewis-clark.org
www.silk-road.com
www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions
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Index
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aeronautical chart: 105–107, 116

Africa, African explorers: 2, 8, 26, 46, 47, 51, 85, 89–91
Andronicus: 18
Asia, Asians: 3, 5–8, 22, 26–32, 34, 43, 46, 48–50, 59, 91
astrolabe: 2, 38, 50, 52
astronauts: 114
Atlantic Ocean: 8, 19, 20, 38, 46
chip log: 13, 15,
chronometer: 2, 12, 55, 57–59, 79, 87, 99, 104, 107
Clovis points, Clovis First Theory: 4–8
Columbus, Christopher: 2, 12, 21, 31, 38, 43, 46–50, 119
compass: 2, 9, 12, 20, 21, 24, 25, 33–39, 45, 51, 68, 69, 72, 79, 82, 83, 87, 95, 104, 105, 107, 108, 119,
136, 140, 142–144, 146, 148, 149
conformal map: 42, 54–56
Cook, Captain James: 2, 22, 23, 57–62, 119
dead reckoning: 12, 38, 68, 73, 107, 118
declination: 34, 79, 121, 135, 136, 141, 142, 148, 149
equal-area map: 42, 54, 55, 56
equator: 10, 11, 15, 40, 44, 49, 53, 54, 60, 62, 67, 116, 129
Eratosthenes: 41
Europe, Europeans: 4, 8, 19, 22, 23, 26–33, 40, 42, 43, 46–48, 58, 101
Everest, Everest explorers: 2, 91–94
Frémont, John Charles: 81, 82, 84
geocaching: 119, 150, 152
geographic north, true north: 24, 34, 65, 79, 95, 121, 135, 136, 141, 142, 145, 148, 149
geographic terms: 70, 71
Global Positioning System (GPS): 2, 69, 95, 105, 112–118, 146, 149–152
Great Reconnaissance: 86, 87
Greenwich mean time, Greenwich, England: 11, 55, 56, 58, 108
gyroscope: 110, 111
Harrison, John: 2, 12, 55, 57, 59
hourglass: 13, 15, 20
inertial guidance, inertial navigation: 109–111, 118
International Date Line: 55, 56, 62
land mile: 13, 40, 44, 56, 63, 149
latitude, parallels: 2, 10–12, 16, 24, 31, 33, 39, 40, 42, 44, 46, 49, 50, 52–54, 57, 62, 63, 66, 79, 88, 112,
114–116, 129, 130, 148, 149
Lewis and Clark: 2, 67, 77–81, 119
Lindbergh, Charles: 107, 108

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longitude, meridians: 2, 10–12, 16, 25, 33, 39, 42, 49, 54–57, 62, 63, 66, 79, 99–101, 112, 114–116, 129,
130, 148, 149
LORAN: 109, 110, 112
Magellan, Ferdinand; Strait of Magellan: 2, 21, 47, 50, 51, 63, 119
magnetic north: 34, 36, 79, 95, 100, 121, 135, 136, 138, 141, 142, 145, 148, 149
Marco Polo: 2, 9, 30, 31, 46, 119
Mediterranean: 15, 16, 18–20, 22, 26–30, 38–43, 50
Mercator, Gustavas; Mercator’s projection: 2, 24, 51, 53–55, 129
nautical mile: 13, 25, 40, 56, 63, 111, 149
North America, North American explorers: 2–8, 34, 47, 49, 59, 67, 72, 74–77, 80–89, 94, 122
North Pole, Arctic, Arctic explorers: 2, 11, 15, 16, 34, 44, 62, 85, 94–100, 104, 108, 112
Oregon Trail: 67, 75, 76, 83
orienteering, orienteering compass: 128, 138–144, 146
Pacific Ocean: 6, 7, 20–23, 50, 51, 57–60, 62
planimetric maps 120, 121, 123, 125
Polynesia, Polynesian: 2, 20–23, 25, 26
portolan: 24, 45, 49, 53
prime meridian: 10, 11, 54–56, 62
Ptolemy: 18, 39, 42, 43, 45, 46, 48, 50
radar: 106, 109, 111
road map: 2, 120, 121, 123–127
rockets: 112, 113
rhumb lines: 45, 53
sextant: 2, 25,38, 61, 79, 87, 95, 99, 102, 104, 108
silk, Silk Road: 2, 26–32
sounding line: 2, 24,
South America: 5, 6, 8, 20, 49, 50, 51, 59
South Pole, Antarctic, Antarctic explorers: 2, 11, 15, 44, 59, 62, 85, 94, 100–104
spices, Spice Islands: 2, 27, 32
stars: 9–12, 14–16, 25, 38, 42, 46, 50–52, 69
topographic map: 2, 55, 116, 119–121, 127–138, 141, 142, 144, 149
triangulation: 74, 91, 117, 146
United States Geological Survey (USGS) 128–130, 136
Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM): 114–117, 148, 149
Vespucci, Amerigo: 47–49
Viking: 2, 18, 19, 20, 21, 119
VHF (Very High Frequency): 106, 109
Weems, Captain Philip Van Horn: 108
winds wind rose: 16–18, 43–45

156
Children's Activity/Education Resource Ages 9 & up

How do people find their way through Tools of Navigation: a Kid’s Guide to
jungles without getting lost? the History and Science of Finding Your
Why did the Vikings use ravens to Way travels through the past and into the future to
navigate the cold waters of the Atlantic? explore how humans have found their way from one
place to another successfully and efficiently throughout
What environment is the
history. Kids will track the evolution of navigational
most challenging to navigate?
methods and tools, meet explorers and inventors who
Why did the discovery of changed the way we look at the world, learn interesting
longitude change history?
facts and trivia, and work on fifteen hands-on projects
What famous children’s book and activities to understand how civilization’s vague
author made major contributions to abilities to avoid getting lost has transformed over
the study of desert navigation? centuries into a sophisticated ability to know exactly
How can you tell where you are on the where we are on the planet at any given moment.
planet just by looking at the sky?

“Whether you choose to explore the Earth by boat or by car or on the soles of your feet, Tools of
Navigation will provide you with skills and inspiration.”
—Kim Kavin, editor of Voyaging magazine

“A delightful exploration of how humans through the ages have found their way and sought to
depict and measure the world.”
—Terry Devitt, Editor, The Why Files, “The Science Behind the News”

“A remarkable account of navigation and the problems presented to the early sailors.”
—Ted Jones, Commodore of the Joshua Slocum Society

“This book has it all: history, science, math, inventions, vocabulary, art, diversity, and laughs!”
—Melissa Norkin, Editor, Cousteau Kids

$13.95
About the Author: $18.95 Canadian
Rachel Dickinson is a travel, nature, and science writer whose articles have
ISBN: 0-9771294-3-8
been published in magazines such as Audubon, The Christian Science Moni-
tor, National Geographic Traveler, and U.S.A. Weekend. She is also the author
of the upcoming book, Tools of the Ancient Romans: a Kid’s Guide to the His-
tory and Science of Life in Ancient Rome.

nomad press
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