70 



this world is given to lying!" But I am glad Dr. Coulter noticed this and 

 put in a disclaimer, thus relieving me to some extent of the suspicion that 

 my fish stories were the only ones in mind. 



I would like to say a word regarding those of the Indiana Acade- 

 my who are now in Washington, and to tell you something of what they 

 are doing. I noticed, perhaps you noticed, in a recent magazine, a long 

 article on "The Plunderers of Washington." There were a dozen or more 

 of them, and I am glad to say to you that there was not among these 

 plunderers who were pictured in this article, any Washington member of 

 the Indiana Academy. We all escaped that distinction at least! I think 

 I can also say that no member of the Indiana Academy in Washington has 

 been seriously involved in the Cook-Peary controversy. We have kept 

 clear of that, also. If there is anything the Indianian learned long ago, it 

 is to take care of himself and not to get into embarrassing situations need- 

 lessly. So in this case the members of the Indiana Academy have read the 

 very interesting article by George Kennan in the Outlook which proved 

 very conclusively that Dr. Cook did not have more than one-tenth of the 

 pemmican necessary to enable him and his dogs to reach the North Pole. 

 They took that for what it was worth, and waited for something further. 

 Then in another magazine some man from the West had the whole thing 

 figured out, showing that Kennan had Cook's dogs continuing to eat 

 pemmican at the rate of a pound a day even after they were dead and the 

 Indiana Academy people in Washington hope Kennan may be able to ex- 

 plain why and how they did such an unusual thing. 



Several of your friends in Washington are engaged in very interesting 

 work which has an important bearing upon matters in this State. Our 

 good friend, Dr. Wiley, the most distinguished Washington member from 

 this State, is still continuing his pure food work and trying to answer the 

 question "What is whisky?" Dr. Hay, a former President of the Academy, 

 and now in Washington, is trying to determine, no doubt for the benefit of 

 the Academy, the age of the Ceratops beds in Wyoming, Idaho and Mon- 

 tana. 



One matter that I think will be of some interest to you here in the 

 Mississippi Valley, is that the Bureau of Fisheries is establishing a bio- 

 logical station at Fairport, Iowa, in the interest of pearls and the pearl 

 button industry, a matter which will appeal to the ladies. There was es- 

 tablished some few years ago a small button factory at Davenport. A 



