40 



East London. 

 1st February igjg 

 Dear Dr. Smith, 



Thank you for your last letter. I have tried to get in touch with 

 the Trawler but at present it is at sea. However, I have a promise 

 that a message shall be delivered and I shall get all information 

 again. 



When I went down to fetch the specimen I was told it had been 

 trawled 40 fathoms off Chalumna and it had been alive. I am en- 

 closing three scales for you. You will notice each one fits into a 

 socket twice its depth. They have not faded much. 



Are you returning to Grahamstown — I shall most probably be 

 able to take the specimen over .to you then. 



Yours sincerely, 



M. Courtenay-Latimer 



Written from Knysna. 



yth February jgjg 

 Dear Miss Latimer, 



Many thanks for your letter and for the parcel of three scales. 

 They leave little doubt about the nature of the fish, but even so my 

 mind still refuses to grasp this tremendous impossibility. The dis- 

 covery is going to be a real zoological sensation, and we shall have to 

 see the trawler captain and crew in order to get their testimony, 

 also the taxidermist. Your original letter to me will probably figure 

 in my first report to the Royal Society. However, all this is con- 

 fidential at the moment. 



Thanks for your off"er to bring the fish to Grahamstown, but the 

 matter is so important that I must come over. My wife and I have 

 decided to leave here a week earlier than we had intended, so as to 

 be able to spend some days in East London. We hope to arrive 

 about Wednesday the 15th next, and I shall probably telephone you 

 immediately we arrive. It will save me time if you have or can have 

 taken a full-plate size print of the photograph of the fish from which 

 drawings can be made as basis. I only hope the taxidermist has not 

 varnished the thing, as I must have details of the external structure 

 of bones, etc. 



No more now. It is curious that in spite of all this evidence, my 

 intellect says that such things can't happen. 



Kindest regards, 



Yours sincerely, 



J. L. B. Smith 



