We're In a hole about the bottles that Fish wanted. I don’t re- 
call that you told mo that the whole affair ought to be carried out surrep- * 
titiously. Mr. Kelly packed them in two or three very large boxes, and I 
made out an invoice sending them express collect and stating what they were. 
Dr. Stejneger turned it down, and Mr. Bryant says the papers have been lying 
on Dr. Weteore's desk for over a week now. Mr. Bryant ®s told me he thought 
if Mr. Shoemaker would talkfi to Wetmore and tell him that we expected to get 
specimens bade in the bottles, perhaps the matter would go through. Mr. 
Shoemaker, however, flatly refused to do anything about lit. He said, H 1 
didn't have anything to do with it. Dr. Schmitt started it, and it will just 
have to wait until he gats back." Short of setting off a stick of dyfeamite 
under him, I can’t budge that man. 1 never saw any one so mulish. 
Well, anyway, to get back to Fish. I finally had to wrl te and tell 
him that the matter was held up. He had written me earlier that he will be 
here late this month for the oceanographic (?) meetings, so I asked him to 
stop in the office and let me talk to him. 1 thought I would rather tell him 
what's gone wrong than write it. What 1 really want to get across to him is 
the fact that he'd better plan to get some bottles ifant it elsdwhere— at least 
to start with. Perhaps after this business had di'ed down and been forgotten, 
•we can sneak some bottles out to him. I'm sorry 'that I didn’t know that it 
wasn’t wise to be open and above-board about it. I didn’t know that Truitt’s 
getting bottles was a sort of secret between you and him, but Mr. Bryant Wll* 
me now (too late to be any usel ' that it was. 
Bartlett wrote me a note a couple of days ago saying that he will 
be in Washington tomorrow and will stop in the office to see me. I don’t 
know what he may want to see me about— I guess just to say how do you do. 
He has written me a couple of times this spring — the same kind of lavishly 
grateful letters he writes you all the time. I didn’t do anything; just told 
Miss Munroe how many separates of the Explorers account to send him, and she 
sent them. He got them last week and is very much pleased. 
Mrs. Longley wrote you about ten days ago asking for advice on how 
to pack up the fish and send them over. I guess I again pulled a faux pas. 
I went to ask Schulz what to tell her about packing fish, and he acted as 
though he were afraid of his shadow in the matter — wanted me to go right up 
laid talk to Wetmore, and for a moment wanted to go with me. That was the last 
thing I wanted, arid X talked him out of the idea. His trouble was that Myers, 
when he heal’d of Longley’ s death, wrote a long (and not very complimentary 
to Longley) letter to Wetmore telling the latter that the f/tuseus should make 
every effort to get Longley* s specimens and figure out what he had been trying 
to do with them. Schulz of course had heard of that letter,' and that was why 
he thought I should see Wetmore instead of writing Mrs. Longley direct. 
Later Mr. Bryant showed me Myers’ letter and Dr. Wetmore 's reply, which you 
rill see whefr you get back. Personally, I think Myers had a nerve to say all 
he did now that he is no longer connected with the Museum, but Wetmore only 
replied- that it was a- matter to be settled with the Carnegie and he was 
referring it to them. 
