1815 became known in Nova Scotia as “Anno Marium” or “The Year Of The Mice” because the province was overrun by an invasion of the rodents!
“...An army of mice marched over Colchester, Pictou and Antigonish Counties, eating everything before it as it advanced. It was a veritable plague, as serious for a time as that of the frogs sent upon the land of Egypt,” recalled the 1892 booklet ‘Forest, Stream and Seashore.’ The topic was a curious choice to include in that early tourism guide, since rodent invasions aren’t typically known for attracting tourists.
In 1877 Dr. George Patterson went around Nova Scotia interviewing old timers about the strange incident, compiling their tales in his book ‘History of Pictou County.’ He wrote:
“The [mice] were very destructive and actually fierce. If pursued, when hard pressed, they would stand at bay, rising upon their hind legs, setting their teeth and squealing fiercely. A farmer on whom I could rely told me that having, after planting, spread out some barley to dry in the sun before the door, in a little while he saw it covered with them. He let the cat out among them, but they actually turned upon her and fought her.”
Dr. Patterson wrote that the mice appeared without warning; “during the previous season they did not appear in any unusual numbers.” But that Spring “before planting was over, the woods and fields alike swarmed with them.”
That Summer the mice grew worse: “These animals swarmed everywhere, and consumed everything edible, even the potatoes in the ground. In some houses at West River are still reserved books which the leather on the covers has been gnawed by them.”
When Autumn rolled in –that important time when crops were harvested for the winter– the mice ate everything: “They have been known to cut down an acre in three days, so that whole fields were destroyed in a short time … Over acres and acres, they left not a stalk standing, nor a grain of wheat, to reward the labours of the farmer.”
The mice caused a crop failure. The all too real threat of starvation hung over Nova Scotia.
A newspaper report by farmer Nathaniel Symond in Antigonish stated: “upwards of five hundred souls … had nothing to subsist on but the very scanty allowance of milk their cows afforded them.”
A large scale aid effort was launched to provide food to parts of Nova Scotia facing starvation that winter.
Dr. Patterson wrote that when the weather grew colder the mice grew sluggish and began to die by the thousands. Possibly in an effort to eat seaweed washing up on the shore, they made their way towards the coast: “and there died, forming a ridge like seaweed along the edge of the sea, and codfish were caught off the coast with carcasses in their maws.”
For more on The Year Of The Mice, and other forgotten stories from Atlantic Canada’s history, listen to the Backyard History Podcast, on
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/5FFZ1eDHZPAFqwN4p0vraAApple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/.../backyard-history/id1593957909Or, if you don’t have podcasts, at
https://backyardhistory.ca/podcastRead the full article:
https://backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/the-year-of-the-micePhoto Information: Nova Scotia’s Year Of The Mice was a one off incident that happened before cameras. This photograph is from Australia, where rodent invasions are common. It was taken in Lescalles, Victoria by F. G. England in 1917.
Find more hidden stories that happened in our own backyards at
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