The Acadian Dykes EarthCache
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(not chosen)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
to get a picture of the Acadian Dykes from the Lr. Truro or Onslow
side (FOR THIS REASON I HAVE POSTED THE CO-ORDS IN THE WATER
BETWEEN BOTH SIDES) with you or your family with your GPS. To gain
bonus points take a short stroll west along the dykes and you can
take a picture of the aboiteau. A bigger bonus would be get the
tidal bore passing by and have all three of these in one picture (
you and GPS - aboiteu - tidal bore ) **please post picture on this
cache site**
Thus began the Acadians epic struggle to build a series of dykes to
keep the sea water out, while allowing fresh water to irrigate the
fertile land. They basically had to harness the sea, no easy task,
even by today’s standards. But it was monumental, undertaking
for a people using only horses, oxen, primitive hand tools and good
strong backs. The Acadians started construction at the edge of the
marsh where the sea had formed a natural ridge at low tide. Whole
Acadian families toiled on the dykes from sun up to sun down. Since
it took two to four years for the fresh water to cleanse the
marshes of the salt, the dykes had to be constructed near fresh
upland streams or rivers. Dykes in the Cumberland Basin measured
three metres at the bottom and rose to two metres high and a metre
wide at the top. At the bottom of the dyke, brush mats were
constructed by laying small hardwood trees close together and
alternating them end-to-end. Marsh mud and grass were used to seal
the wood together. On top of the brush mat more cross ties of wood
were laid. Then posts were driven at an angle into the cross ties
securing the brush mat below. Sods of grass from the marsh anchored
the face of the dykes further sealing off the high tidewaters. But,
by the 1740s many were much larger reaching heights of seven metres
high by thirteen metres wide at the base. The most ingenious
feature of the Acadian dykes were the sluices or
“aboiteaus” which were a series of wooden gates
designed to swing open, allowing fresh water onto the land before
flushing it out to sea. Afterward, the gates slammed shut keeping
the sea water out. The Acadian French were the only ones in the new
world to use this method of farming. It is thought, they brought
the technology with them because it had been used previously in
both Holland and France By the 1750s, the Acadian people had dyked
more than 5,000 hectares of land. Acadian history reveals a
diligent and tenacious people who survived both being torn between
the warring factions of the France and England, and the banishment
from their lands by the British during the Acadian expulsion,
“derangement” of 1755. At Tintamare, and all around the
Fundy basin, many of these dykes are still standing and functional
today. The Acadian dykes truly are an engineering marvel and serve
as a testament to a resilient and industrious, Acadian culture The
Acadians devised a system of drainage ditches combined with an
ingenious one-way water gate called an aboiteau. The aboiteau was a
hinged valve in the dike which allowed fresh water to run off the
marshes at low tide but which prevented salt water from flowing
onto the farmland as the tide rose. These efforts were not in vain
since the lands, surrounded by the dikes and drained by wooden
clapper valves, were completely desalinated and extremely fertile.
The immediate result was that the Acadian standard of living, while
very rigorous, was greatly enhanced and this very rapidly. PLEASE
***********************JUST E-MAIL YOU ANSWER TO ME. THOSE WHO
DON'T COMPLETE ALL TASKS REQUIREMENTS WILL RISK HAVING THEIR LOG
CREDIT DELETED************************* TO COMPLETE THE CACHE
PLEASE ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS. 1)WHAT IS THE APPROXIMATE
HEIGHT AND WIDTH OF THE DYKES HERE 2)DID THE DYKE HOLD BACK WATER
WHILE YOU WAS HERE OR DID THE WATER MAKE IT UP TO THE DYKE 3)WHAT
IS A ABOITEAU? 4)APPROX WHEN WAS THE DYKE BUILT 5)ALSO POST YOUR
PICTURE AS STATED ABOVE TO GAIN THE CURRENT TIDE TIMES YOU CAN GO
TO ( WWW.TIDES.GC.CA ) click on Atlantic and then go to the map for
zone 30 (hold your pointer over to see the zones) choose from the
list at the bottom Truro and there you have it.
This Earth Cache was hidden by a member of the MGA!
-=Maritime
Geocachers Association=-
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
cerggl frys rkcynangbel