|
It is particularly difficult to place the road from the place it left the main Isgonish River, until it reached the French River and from there to the head of the tide. Probably, the branch of the Isgonish that had its source in Farm Lake and Clear Lake was followed, for according to tradition, there was an Indian graveyard and a farm near the North end of Farm Lake, from which fact the lake took its name. Clear Lake, according top tradition, also derived its name from a clearing and a camping ground nearby, which was used by the early settlers in journeying from Tatamagouche to Cobequid. This route, by Farm Lake and by Clear Lake was the most direct and probably the most accessible. There are, however, traditions that it was the Mill Brook branch of the French River that was followed, rather than the main River itself. Willard* in his journal, mentions that after he came to the first houses and barns in Tatamagouche, he came down a river running East, and it is significant that the course of the Mill Brook is for a time almost East. Then, too, the Mill Brook took its name from the French having built on it a small water mill. There is also a tradition that the Acadians
had cleared fields and cut hay in the meadows much further up the Mil
Brook near the Florida Road and it was this stream which they followed all
the way. It must be remembered, however, that this so-called road,
compared to our modern roads, was nothing much better than a blazed trail,
whose chief value was that by its directions could be kept. Yet, from time
to time, the French took over it horses, cattle, sheep and fowl. French an
British troops were able to cover the distance from Cobequid to
Tatamagouche in a day-something they could not possibly have done in
either a pathless or roadless forest. Back |
