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Dykes.

The most definite evidence that can yet be seen of French days is that of the dykes along Dewar’s River, on Waugh’s River and at McConnell’s Creek, near the head of Barrachois Harbour. These, all more or less, follow the same pattern. The ones at Dewar’s River (which is part of the county line between Colchester and Cumberland Counties) can be plainly seen from the highway, below which, in early days, there was a crude, floating bridge. At the time of the arrival of the first settlers, the remains of an abbattoir near the foot of Steven’s Hill were still to be seen. Here, too, in the nearby marsh were unearthed scythes and other farming implements, which the Acadians had buried before they were hurried out of the Country.

The dykes at McConnell’s follow the course of a small salt water creek at the head of Barrachois Harbour. The creek has yet a considerable area of marsh to its East, and it was apparently this area which the Acadians were trying to dyke off. The dykes can be seen from the main highway and extend both above and below the bridge.

Just above Lockerbie’s where Waugh’s River widens out as it joins the tide, are the most conspicuous dykes on that River.* Like the others, they are more easily seen in the Fall and in the Spring, when there is no growth to the grasses and the sedges. To the nearby land came the first settler on Waugh’s River, Gideon Delesdernier. He was the first tenant of DesBarres on the Manor Farm, which DesBarres reserved in the centre of his grant.

*Since writing this I have been informed by Will Bryden that traces of French dykes are yet to be seen along the River on the Bryden farm near Lockerbie’s railway bridge. They are in what is known as the "Shipyard field", so called, because the field was once the sight of the first shipyard of the Hon. Alex. Campbell. Later on other shipbuilders at Tatamagouche used the same site.

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