SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 
July 7» 1938. 
Dr. Waldo L. Sohmitt, 
Curator of Marine Invertebrates, 
U. S. National Museum. 
Through s Dr. L. Ste jneger. 
Dear Dr. Schmitts 
Herewith I am forwarding- to you two letters of 
authorization to cover your expenses while on a cruise 
arranged by the President of the United States. The first, 
from the National Museum will cover your railroad fare and 
pullman only; these will be secured by transportation request. 
Your subsistence and miscellaneous expenses, including board 
and other expenses while on board ship, will be paid by the 
Smithsonian Institution under the advance of funds that has 
been made to you. 
Briefly, your work will be to obtain desirable 
material for -the U. S„ National Museum collections. Necessarily 
most of this will be marine material. In view of your long 
experience with this type of work the details for -the work, are 
left to your own discretion. 
If it is practicable to land on Clipperton Island, 
as we hope, in addition to marine collections it is desired to 
have from three to six examples eaoh of all of the species of 
birds found on this island. These should be shot carefully to 
avoid too much damage, should have the throats plugged with clean 
cotton, and should then be wrapped in paper after the feathers 
have been arranged smoothly so that they will not be come injured. 
In this condition they can be placed on cold storage on board ship 
and so carried. You can probably a rrange to get them back to 
Washington from your point of debarkation by handling them with dry 
ice. As they will be frozen they should not be allowed to warm 
up to the point of thawing until they reach here as whan that 
happens it is necessary to prepare them at once or they will spoil. 
We have no bird material from Clipperton so that specimens from 
there will be extremely useful. The Island has been little 
visited. 
