agent. The trade between Quebec and Louisbourg and the settlements on
the Isthmus was carried on through the Port of Bay Verte, and from
there the farmers of Chignecto shipped their cattle and farm products.
The Acadians were quick to see the benefits that would arise from
reclaiming the rich river valleys, and they drew their revenues chiefly
from this land. They did not readily take to the cutting down of the
forests and preparing the upland for growing crops; they were more at
home with the dyking-spade than the axe. A description of their methods
of dyking and constructing aboideaux, written in 1710, is interesting
to those who are doing the same work now.

The writer of 1710 says: "They stopped the current of the sea by
creating large dykes, which they called aboideaux. The method was to
plant five or six large trees in the places where the sea enters the
marshes, and between each row to lay down other trees lengthways on top
of each other, and fill the vacant places with mud so well beaten down
that the tide could not pass through it. In the middle they adjusted a
flood-gate in such a way as to allow the water from the marsh to flow
out at low water without permitting the water from the sea to flow in
at high tide." The writer adds that the work was expensive, but the
second year's crop repaid them for the outlay. This is more than can be
said for present-day experience in the same kind of work.

The land reclaimed on the Aulac was confined principally to the upper
portion of the river. The Abbe Le Loutre saw that the benefit would be
great if this river were dammed near its mouth, and he was at work at a
large aboideau, for which he had received money from France, when the
fall of Beausejour forever put a stop to his enterprise.

Wheat seems to have grown very abundantly on the marsh when it was