35 

 usual prompt, but it was couched in such incredulous and face- 

 tious terms that it served only to increase my fears of the reactions 

 from a wider field. I had to go and look at the sketch, the notes, 

 and the volume again, as I did a hundred times a day. They 

 acted as a soothing drug on a maniacal mind. I was not easy to 

 live with those days. 



On the 9th January 1939, having heard no more from Miss 

 Latimer, I wrote again as follows: 



Knysna. 

 gth January igjg 

 Dear Miss Latimer, 



Your fish is occasioning me much worry and sleepless nights. 

 It is most aggravating being so far away. I cannot help but mourn 

 that the soft parts of the fish were not preserved even had they been 

 almost putrid. I am sorry to say that I think their loss represents one 

 of the greatest tragedies of zoology, since I am more than ever con- 

 vinced on reflection that your fish is a more primitive form than has 

 yet been discovered. It is almost certainly a Crossopterygian allied 

 with forms that flourished in the early Mesozoic or earlier, but which 

 have been extinct for many millions of years. Comparatively little is 

 known of the internal structure of such fishes, naturally nothing of the 

 soft parts, since fossil remains are all that help us to know what they 

 were like. Your fish has the general external features of a Coelacan- 

 thid, fishes common in early times in northern Europe and America. 

 Whether or not it is a new genus or family I can determine only on 

 examination, but I feel sure that it will make a great sensation in the 

 Zoological world. I have been anxiously awaiting a letter from you, 

 because I hope you understand that the thing must on no account be 

 stuflFed until it has been examined. It is very important that the 

 structure of the skull shall be determined and the relations of the 

 bones of the jaws. You do not happen to have noticed whether the 

 air-bladder was partly ossified or not? I asked you to see if you 

 can possibly send the skin, etc., to me by passenger train so that I 

 may examine them. Even if you have to have a special box made, it 

 will be cheaper to send that way than for me to come to East London 

 at present. If the skin is properly packed it will come to no harm, 

 and I have a large preserving tank here that has held larger specimens 

 than that. You should really have some such thing at the Museum. 

 It can be made very cheaply by a plumber out of stout galvanised 

 iron. 



If you judge it quite impossible to arrange to send the skin I shall 



