What is the capital of Canada? If you’re well-versed in geographic knowledge, you know the answer is Ottawa. But why is that? After all, Toronto is much larger than any other city in Canada. Montreal is an international city with ties to Europe. Vancouver is a major city with a very strategic port. Quebec City is centrally located.

Why were none of these cities chosen to be the capital of Canada? As it turns out, choosing a capital city is more complicated than pointing to the biggest city on the map.

Ottawa was a good choice because it was centrally located between two other major contenders. Montreal (which was predominantly French) and York (now Toronto, which was predominantly British). These two cities were the largest in Ontario and Quebec, which were at the center of Canada in the middle of 19th century. Picking Ottawa was a good compromise, as the Queen did not want to appear to favor one major city over the other.

Also, unlike Toronto and Montreal, Ottawa was central but also a safe distance away from Canada’s southern neighbor, the United States. It meant the capital would be safer in the event the U.S. decided to attack again. After all, it had only been 40 years since the War of 1812 when American troops had invaded as a result of British interference(干涉) in shipping. Although America was unable to capture Canada, the invasion was costly for the British government, who was not about to let it happen again.

Hence, Ottawa was a great choice for the capital of Canada.

Exploring the sands on the beach, Tonya III man came across a lidless boule. She picked it up, looked inside and noticed something. She turned it upside down. Out came a damp, neatly rolled piece of paper. Tonya took it home, dried and unrolled it.

What caught her eye was the year field, 18      . Though at first sceptical of finding something this old so easily, she continued reading. It began with some coordinates (坐标). Below was a request in German asking the bolded finder to put down the date and location of where it was found and return it to the nearer German embassy.

The Illmans took the note Rosa Anderson, a curator (馆长) at the Western Australian Museum. Soon Anderson called, saying he had been able to locate a 19th - century ship named Paula. Even more exciting was that experts in Germany were able to track down Paula’s logbooks and find a record by a “Captain O. Diekmann,” confirming that a bottle had been thrown overboard on June 12. 1886 - the date on the message. The sailor had also listed the coordinates of the ship’s location, which matched the ones on the note. Another evidence of the note’s truth was the logbook’s neat script (手稿), which paired perfectly with that of the handwritten message. The records also indicated that the bottle was one of the thousands thrown by the seamen back then as part of an experiment to track the water currents.

Anderson believes the note remained undamaged because it was put in a strong bottle with a narrow opening which allowed little water in, even after the lid came off. The expert guessed it had been probably washed ashore and remained buried in the thick sand.

The 131 - year - old note, now lying in the Western Australia Museum, was confirmed as the oldest message in a bottle ever discovered.