SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 
March 3, 1934. 
Dr. Waldo L. Schmitt, 
c/o Mrs. B^le J, B^chley, 
Zoological Society of San Diego, 
Balboa Park, 
San Diego, California. 
Dear Dr. Schmitt: 
Your two letters of February 3 and February 16 
have duly come to hand, and I am. greatly pissed at the 
excellent results that are attending your work. Mr. Miller 
and Dr. Kellogg are highly appreciative of your efforts in 
getting porpoises and feel sure that the specimens will be 
of value and importance. I know n^self how difficult it 
is to secure these creatxires. In 1923 I shot one in the 
lagoon at Midway Island but it promptly sank so that I was 
not able to secure it. As an earlier experience in 1920 I 
found one cast up on the beach on the eastern coast of the 
Province of Buenos Aires and started in blithely to rough 
out the skeleton. The beast had been dead for some time, 
however, and although I have tackled many such jobs I finally 
had to abandon this one as it was entirely too much for me. 
C. W. A. work went along in good shape for five 
days after the 15th of February, the date originally set as 
the time for termination. It developed that the District 
authorities had to reduce from 20,000 to 14,000 so that we 
got word at 2:30 one afternoon to cut everybody off the pay- 
rolls without exception that night at 4:oO p.m. This was a 
little Quicker action than I anticiinted and did not give us 
time to clean up as I had expected. After all I feel quite 
satisfied, however, since we accomplished a tremendous amount 
of work and you can readily understand the difficulties of 
trying to reduce personnel gradually with a crowd of that kind. 
We shall have no further assistance from this source. 
In your letter of February 16 you mention the 
matter of a drum of alcohol which you v;ish to transfer to Mr. 
Swett. This is something that cannot be done since it involves 
the exchange of government property, a matter that is not legal 
