- 2 - 
' The program sounds ambitious I east attesit, and w# shall be able to do only 
a , small part of It in US days. Nevertheless , for us and our Museum it is the 
opportunity of a lifetime, even if m say be able to accomplish no »ore than a 
random sampling of the sisal ler representatives of fauna of that vast area. 
There is very little of tills type of material from Africa In our collections} 
therefore, whatever we get will be more than welcome. e intend that a repre- 
sentative set of our collections, when determined , shall go to the Congo Museum 
in Bruxelles, and we shall be only too glad to comply with all rules and regu- 
lations if we can be permitted to collect the things in which we are interested. 
In order to bring back say small animals taken in our live-trap®, we would 
like to obtain the services of a trained assistant who can make up study-skins. 
I asked Or. Chapin if he coulc recommend suci* a awn to us, but r.e said he did 
not know of any as ail who were qualified were employed. Do you think we sight 
borrow or obtain the services of a research center assistant for a week at a 
time at Leopoldville, at Stanleyville, and at Bukavu if we paid his expenses, 
lodging, subsistence, and salary, if deemed proper? lie have great need of an 
assistant of this kind for collecting and preserving animals, and skinning those 
whose skins we- want to save. If one such assistant could get leave of absence 
at cash of the three places sectioned for the purpose of assisting us we would 
be very happy indeed. 
yy knowledge of the Congo is most limited and I have had little to do with 
anything fro® that region since reporting on the shrimps and aaomurans collected 
by Lang and James P. Chapin nearly §0 years ago. My report (Bull. Amer. Mas. 
gat. Hist. , vol. 53, art. 1, p. 1-6?) was published in 1926 shortly after the 
specimens were submitted to me for study. To get some idea of time and distances 
X went to the foreign travel department of the American Automobile Association 
to get a tentative itinerary. This is the blue covered M document" enclosed. 
-.never, the suggested Congo giver trip will not be taken, as Mr. '-redir, would 
prefer the alternative route by auto to Stanleyville. As outlined, the trip 
looked fairly reasonable and lead us to believe that m might be able to collect 
and sot cut traps each evening and gather them up in the early morning, collect 
slants and sites during the neon or luncheon hour, and atop for taking specimens 
at the native fisheries enroute. To gain time I planned to omit the Katanga 
part cf the itinerary, a gain of twelve days over the listed itinerary, permitting 
longer stops at selected places. The AM itinerary, which I also modified, as 
given on the accompanying twin sheet cf paper, would still leave too little time 
for collecting and photographing. 
I should explain here that Mr. Bredin prefers to travel by auto, although 
he was not adverse to flying, and expects to fly home to Turk from Cairo ah 
the end of our trip. Nevertheless it does look as though we shall have to fly 
from Leopoldville to Stanleyville at least, to save 12 to 18 days time here, too. 
Would we be missing anything important if we did this, and took several shorter 
excursions out of Leopoldville or Stanleyville instead, as suggested by lr. Country 
below? He is the agricultural attache here at the Belgian Bsbassjr who last year 
made an official tour of the Congo. I set him through l)r. Charles £• Kellogg of 
our Soil Conservation Service. Dr* Country said at once that if v* were to 
attempt all that I outlined, traveling day after day by auto, it would be too 
strenuous} that we would get too tired, after a few days of continuous auto travel 
even to do auc-.i of anything} and that we would find precious little time before 
and after cash day’s auto ride for collecting. I expect that you may well agree 
with him. 
