The Gold Bug

Note: The cache is not located at the posted co-ordinates.

Captain Kidd was said to have buried a treasure of great value near here. A small creek off the Ottawa river large enough to accommodate a longboat was all that was needed, as long ago, he headed inland and stole ashore to make camp and bury his treasure. To make sure he could find his booty again he left a macabre marker (Boris was the unfortunate soul's name). He then made a set of coded instructions on a scroll along with a treasure map which he ripped in half. One half of the map he kept for safe-keeping and the other he rolled in a map-case and hid in a small tree near where he had camped inland for the night. Both halves of the map were needed to find the treasure, but only after the code on the scroll had been deciphered.

The treasure was never found and Captain William Kidd was hanged for piracy on May 23, 1701 (but not easily. The first rope put around this neck broke so he had to be strung up a second time). At the turn of the century, one half of the map turned up hidden in the secret compartment of an old chest belonging to Kidd (the 'Hardy Chest') which was believed to have accompanied him on all of his voyages. The scroll containing the cipher was discovered only recently and appears below in it's complete form.

Decipher the writings of this scroll to find the map-case with Kidd's half of the treasure map. You can print the other half of the map found on the cache page so you can put them together when the time comes. You can note the new information on your map and leave Kidd's map in it's case for the next seeker. The scroll also tells you the means of discovering the treasure itself which involves finding Boris's necktie. But beware. Boris crossed the captain long ago, and ended up well... dead.

The Gold Bug by Edgar Allen Poe was my first introduction to cryptography and mono alphabetic substitution when I read it as a kid (a long time ago). It was pretty heady for me at the time but an 'after school' TV special tweaked my interest and it was not soon after that I had my nose in an old dusty copy that had been sitting un-touched in the library. It was written in 1843 so be prepared for some non-politically correct subject matter, kinda like Mark Twain - but it is still a classic.

Also, the first version of the cache had the cacher actually procurring the gold bug, and dropping it through the skull's right eye socket on a string, but this proved to be impractical (grin), so it has been simplified somewhat...

The posted coordinates are for the area where Kidd made his camp near the great hill (you can park here). You may wish to wear long pants as there are many a berry bush nearby. There is not a lot of bushwhacking but the trail becomes quite overgrown in the summer. The bugs can also be bad if you don't come prepared with insect repellent Good Luck!

Decryption Key A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M ------------------------- N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z (letter above equals below, and vice versa)