UNITED STATES 
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 
BUREAU OF FISHERIES Olga Bay, iU* 
Fe’o. 27, 1941 
Dr. "Jaldo L. Schmitt 
S* national 
'■Tashington, 
liuseurn 
n 
Dear Dr« ochnittj 
I surely did a,ppreciate hearing from you; your letter of 
Je.n* ?ith reached me Feb. 12th. So far your in:ixsrmation about the 
s'^ring trip is the only ne-^Ys I have received; I suppose Harrison 
is r/aiting or has v/aited, until all '-ms definite and then 'vould v/ire 
me 5 but ’ve did not foresee the present radio situa.tion here and 
neither of us has gotten through with a. -^ord to eo.ch other for over 
three weeks. Seller* s radio station has been revoked as a. commercial 
sender and receiver and he has been entirely unable to contact Kodiak. 
I dji't know exactly v/hat the difficulty is; I think it was mostly due 
to Harry’s forgetfulness in keeping ■'^is schedules as well as the 
poor condition of his receiving and sending set* 
I wish mere than oaiything that you were coming back on the 
spring trip. Perhaps you are and that would be very find* I am glad 
thPut the set-up ha.s been changed; I suppose that more emphasis will 
be ol 0 „ced on the biologica.1 side of the nroblera and that we "dll do 
a grocat deal of tagging and measuring. It will be nice to have a 
complete collecting equipraent on each boat, and I hope that we will 
come through with a nice museum collection. You seem to ha.ve covered 
the ’’want list” very adequately? because I can’t think of a thing to 
add? except perhaps Kodak 616 film? and I’ll try to get word to Ghristey, 
but feel sure he would ho.ve thoTight of that. 
I now up at Olga Ba,y and have been for nearly two weeks* I 
fin^' tlmt it works nice to have Jim at Alitak p.nd keep the traps 
going thelre" ^though Y/e a^re not taking a thing. I really shoiild have thought 
of this arrangement sooner? beca.sue I am just getting on to the tail end of 
the moulting season for P. camitschatica . I have taken 20 F . camt s c hat i ca 
and ten F. platypus since here and there is no question that the ’’red^j’ have 
iitUt already moulted* The carapaces have b, bright? clea.n striking appearance? 
the brushes” on the mouth parts and abdomial plates of the females are very 
new and unworn? and to cinch the Y/hole business the femades have practically 
undeveloped ne batches of eggs* Of those 20 ”reds” only two had not yet 
moulted, both are females? and both gave a very positive dactyl t6st. One 
female had a-lready hatched out 0.11 of her eggs and Ir^sovered some very 
bea.Tiiiiful zooea larvae from the ’’hairs” of the abdominal appendages: the other 
fenalex had not lost her eggs a.s yet, but on putting some in a fixative saw 
perfectly shaped zooea. come popping out. I am keeping both n a live box and 
hope that the^/^ will soon perform for me* p, platypus gives no indicatmn 
of a. recent m-''ult or a readhess to moult? so perhaps there is a different 
seasai for the two species. The first t so days that I were here I saw; the 
