Varadero Beach 
October 16 , 1958 
Dear Dr. Schmitt: ' : 
Thank you so much for your kind and interesting letter of the 5th. 
Please never feel that you are overdue in a reply to me I For gosh 
sakes, with one to write as many people as you do - without the help 
of a secretary - I just don’t know how you get it all accomplished 
anyway I I do however enjoy it more than I can tell you whenever one 
of those big fat envelopes arrives. .. in fact we both enjoy them, 
because I alv/ays read them aloud to Hut h. 
.Am delighted beyond words regarding the appearance of the rare 
Amphipod from Barbuda J HiThat a thrill that must have been to turn up i 
And as you say, the surface only has been scratched, ^Hhile bn the sub- 
ject of Crustacea, I wish to say that I have just recently finished read- 
ing your fascinating treatise on Crustacea contained in the Smithsonian 
Scientific Series of some years back - "Shelled Invertebrates”. I most 
thoroiaghly enjoyed it and fortunately stumbled upon it in the "Xanadu” 
library recently while looking for books on fishes. Incidentally, we 
have not yet been able to find anything on the rare one from the deep 
waters of Matanzas Bay, Of course, as you well point out, it may be 
nothing more than an immature specimen which can so often look quite 
different from the adult. Neither was there anything like it in six 
books (his own) which Moreno brought Out from Havana. Abel ardo will 
eventually consult some "high, powered” tomes at the Havana Univ. 
library and perhaps one of these may figure our enigma. Abelardo is 
at present in Porto Rico for a week at a United Nations symposium 
dealing with the international exchange of scientists. He will, shortly 
after his return, take up his permanent residence here and commence in 
earnest his work on the peninsula’s fauna; they are stin trying to 
rent their Havana home which is of course a matter of serious concern 
to them. 7/e are all looking fomvard to assisting him to our utmost in 
this undertaking. 
Before retrogressing to facts pertaining to the past spring 
expedition of the "Freelance”, I wish to tell you that Bruce has ^ 
officially informed me that I am invited to be with you on the coming 
windward islands expedition. I just don’t know what I’ve done ^ in this 
world that would bring such good luck my way, but it has certainly set 
my veins tingling with the most pleasant anticipation of being together 
with you all once again II It is certainly most kind of Bruce I 
Now to mollusca. It would of course be just fine and most helpful 
to me if Dr. Rehder can find the time to look over all the material which 
we took on the Leevrard Islands expedition, I realize however, that his 
other xjresslng duties may delay this. The majority of the shells taken, 
at least up to the time of departure, were in the main commonplace, 
and I should Imagine that just casual mention of them in an annotated 
list vEOuld suffice. I took q.ulte a few notes when on the trip, but 
these concerned those which I observed as more \musual. I am enclosing 
a page of notes, dates and localities, on the more unusual material 
taken, which may be of Immediate interest in preparing the "highlights” 
of mollusca taken. The shell which I believe I was most Interested in, 
was the large Bursa sp . taken in the shell trap at 126 fathoms off 
Charlestown, Nevis, and which at the time of collecting looked very much 
like a large shell of this genus which Tom McGinty/and myself have both 
taken in deep water. He has new returned the specimen to me labeled 
