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some day the culprit would be detected, but up to the present year nothing further is known of the murder at the North Barracks than what I have given in the preceding article.

A good deal of interest has lately been displayed with respect to the origin of the word "aboideau." The readers of The New Brunswick Magazine who have followed the discussion of the subject by Mr. Dole and others, may be interested in a short account of the first aboideau at St. John for the purpose of reclaiming the marsh to the eastward of the city, which, at the time of the arrival of the first settlers, produced only an abundance of "salt hay" or marsh grass.

In the year 1769 plans were discussed for the general improvement of the Marsh, and with that end in view Simonds and White employed a number of indigent Acadians, who for the most part hunted as did the Indians, but had not been able to pay in furs and skins all their debts. These Acadians claimed to have some knowledge of dykeing marsh lands and with their assistance a "Running Dyke" was made from the banks of the Marsh Creek to the higher land on either side. The situation of this dyke was not at the mouth of the creek, but at a place opposite the Rural Cemetery where the lake like expansion of the Marsh begins. The work was completed in the month of August, 1774, by the construction of an aboideau. This was quite an under-taking, fifteen to twenty-five persons and sometimes more, worked at it daily until it was finished. Those employed included six or eight Acadians, the Company's laborers, and a number of the Maugerville people.