Even farm families who, for generations, have been farming the dykes make no distinction. Esther Clark Wright makes note of this in her wonderful book, Blomidon Rose. Ms. Wright notes that only here in this area of the Valley do we generally fail to make a distinction between the dyke and dyked land. Where there are dykes elsewhere in the province, Wright says, the dyked land is generally called marshland. When local waterfowl hunters speak of hunting on the dykes, the common meaning is the arable land, not the walls.
Marshlands are the wet, swampy areas behind the sea walls.
Hunters, and most people in fact make a distinction between marshland and the dykes. I've heard people mention bird watching on the dyke wall, walking on the dyke wall and hunting ducks on the dyke wall. This usage to me is a clear indication that people take the dyke to mean the sea wall and the dyked land. Another distinction rarely made is the difference between the two types of dykes we have here - running dykes and cross dykes. The latter were generally built across rivers with a gate or aboiteau.