"Dec. 28th--Working at byto; very fine day. The hole nigh filled up."

On March 20th, he writes: "Concluded to give up the Byto." There is a
reckless disregard of rules in spelling the word "aboideau," but
doubtless the pronunciation was as varied then as now. Being obliged to
let this work go must have been a great disappointment and a great loss
as well. It was not till 1829, more than twenty years after, that the
aboideau, now known as the "Trueman Byto," was built.

A night's experience during the building of the first aboideau was long
remembered by the family at Prospect. The following is the only
reference made to it in the journal: "June 7th, 1804--The sluice went
adrift; was up to Nappan." On the 9th: "Got back as far as Cumberland;
wind favorable in coming back."

The sluice referred to is a large wooden box or waterway, which is
placed near the centre of the aboideau and as near as possible in the
bed of the river. The great height of the tides, and the rapid current
that runs up and down the stream twice in twenty-four hours, make it a
most difficult operation to get one of these sluices bedded. The sluice
would be about fifty feet long, fifteen feet wide, and five or six feet
deep.

The men were hard at work after the sluice had been got into its place,
trying to make it secure with the weight of mud, but the tide coming
too quick for them lifted it out of its bed. Four of the Trueman boys
sprang on the sluice as it floated down the river, in the hope of
saving it in some way. It proved, however, to be a most unmanageable
craft, and they could do little to stay their course down the river,
and in spite of every effort were carried out into the Basin. Night