SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Alfred and Jessie Ferguson RECORDED: Victoria (B.C.), 1982-07-11 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Alfred and Jessie Ferguson tell tale about pulling cougar inside out. Tale about shooting wolf with bent barrel. Tale of hunting geese with rope. Description of tall taleteller Frank Verdier,; his life and work. How Frank blazed trail to Mill Bay. Frank born in later 1870s or 1880s. On his family. His tightness with money, but generosity in other ways. People Frank looked after. A remittance man. Chief Thunderbird, Paul Baptiste, a local wrestler and friend of Frank's. Frank told Indian stories and spoke Chinook. Frank did business with Indians and had an orchard, used to cut firewood.; When Frank told stories. Story of tricking sister into thinking baby rats were baby pigs. His storytelling style. A prank he played on Baptiste. Frank was superstitious and a good mathematician. His French-Irish accent. Where he got his stories. Who he told his tales to. Story of Frank at a business lunch. His family. Alfred telling tales to his children. Alfred's father's stories. Joke about snoo-snoo snake. TRACK 2: Jessie talks about telling cougar story on radio. Men and women telling tall tales. More on Frank's eccentricities. Frank's woods experiences. Cougars and wolves. Other storytellers. Jessie tells of her family coming to Victoria. Father's description of Canada. The big snow in Victoria, 1916. Telephone practical jokes. The lack of documentation of the past. Old-time entertainment. Victoria theatres. Houdini and other entertainers who passed through Victoria. Mosquitoes. Alfred's boss as storyteller -- his life story. Alfred's background, mostly in construction. His occupational history. Buildings he worked on. Jessie's life history. Born in Liverpool. Family history. Schools in Victoria when she was young. Her jobs during the Depression. More on her family. Alfred talks about Muggins, the dog who collected for the Red Cross during WWI in Victoria. His great grandfather who was a bricklayer in Victoria and buildings he built. Their former house, built by Alfred.

Building and surroundings.

Account book for menagerie, museum and saloon operating in Victoria, 1876-1882. Household expenses for the family operating the establishment are also included. The museum and menagerie may have been the one opened by Mr. Bristol on Government Street in 1872. The collection includes feather and preserved snakeskin samples. The account book itself was a former ship's logbook and has records from the Trafalgar, 1857-1859 and the Anglesey, 1860-1861.

The series consists of records created by the British Columbia Provincial Police between 1917 and 1920 relating to the enforcement of the Amusements Tax Act, 1917. Includes record of ticket sales [Victoria?] and stock book of amusement tax tickets, 1919-1920.