SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 
July 11, 1932 
Dear Dr* Schmitt: 
Your several letters arrived today and I have been busy 
a ll day carrying out your requests. 
The shell vials, with elder pith for corks, are already in 
the mail. 
I am enclosing the meter-fathom comversion table which I 
copied from Murray and Hjort. 
Mr. Burkenroad*s letter which you sent up was the first 
indication that we had had that he planned to go to New York. He 
has not been here in the office since Friday, and, in view of the 
letter which you sent, we suspect that he has gone to New York with- 
out saying any tiling to us about it. I have tried all afteinoon to- 
day to call his boarding house, but do not get any reply to the 
telephone. I consulted with Mr. Bryant about a letter to him, and 
Mr. Bryant dictated one for Mr. Shoemaker to sign. Mr. Bryant thought 
that would be the best way. I am enclosing a copy of the letter. 
Since we have no definite way of knowing that he is at the American 
Museum, we also wrote a note to Miner asking him to forward Burkenroad^s 
letter to the Aquarium if he is not at the Muaura. If he is not at 
the Aquarium, then of course the letter will be returned to us. 
Mr. Bryant advised that we put away all the reference books 
that Burkenroad has had out (dozens and dozens of them — hg^^idently 
never puts a thing back on the shelf having once got it and to 
gather his specimens all together in one tray. He left his table in 
a terrible mess — specimens scattered eUJ. over it, your microscope 
light in the middle weighting down some drawings on which he has 
been working lately, two sheets of sticky fly paper, and a Mason jar 
top containing cigarette butts and ashes. Quite a collection! Mr. 
Shoemaker has been complaining for a long time about the space Burken- 
road has taken up with his many books and pamphlets, but he would not 
do anything about it. I threatened some time ago to put all the books 
back on the shelf, and Mr. Shoemaker has always said go to it. This 
afternoon I did go to it, and now he and Mr. Maloney are shaking in 
their boots for fear Burkenroad is going to walk in and they won't 
know what kind of explanation to give him. I told them I'm not afraid 
to talk to him. They are the ones that have been squawking about the 
situation, but neither one of them would ^ anything, much less say 
