UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 
ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY 
NATIONAL AIR MUSEUM 
NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK 
VIA AIR MAIL 
Dr. Alexander Wetmore 
El. Volcan, Pr. de Chiriqui 
Republic of Panama 
Dear Alex: 
I was very happy to receive your letter of February 27, giving a 
brief account of your trip into the wilds of Venezuela and announcing 
your safe arrival at El Volcan. I would be much interested in seeing 
some of your pictures when you finally have them developed and printed 
as on this trip you have really been into some new, and wild, and 
woolly country. 
I have not heard anything from Adela about the Jeep so I wonder 
whether she is going forward with that or whether it will await your 
return to the Zone. 
Tour very complimentary remarks about Adela are appreciated. I 
think she has done a very remarkable job and, of course, Cleve Soper 
has been a lifesaver. We have had a most painful experience with the 
Diesels and before we get through we are going to try to learn the 
reason for this. Two Diesel experts from the Coast Guard have given 
us some valuable advice on our difficulties but the only thing they 
had to work on were the damaged parts sent up by Cleve and Alfaro's 
log. From studying these, they would place some blame on Alfaro's 
man who took off the magnetic valve and then ran the engine without 
it which resulted in highly overheating the job. We have had other 
rumors to the effect that they are going to blame the fuel though 
this is the same fuel as used by PanCan and I am certain that they 
are not running into these terrific bills that we have experienced. 
There is also the possibility that we may be blamed for not having a 
real Diesel operator on the job. In other words they will take a 
crack at Chichi. While gasoline equipment is not the same as Diesel, 
I think Chichi has done a fine job in keeping the old gasoline equip¬ 
ment running and he seems to be most adaptable at any mechanical job. 
While we are on the subject of Chichi, I hope that you will have 
an opportunity to talk to both Adela and Jim about some of the adverse 
reports that cropped up at our meeting regarding Chichi's treatment of 
scientists and even questions regarding his selling animals off the 
Island. We certainly should not mention the names of any of the men, 
I 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
JIa.shutytoji 25, D. C. 
ns. A. 
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART 
NATIONAL COLLECTION OF FINE ARTS 
FREER GALLERY OF ART 
INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE SERVICE 
CANAL ZONE BIOLOGICAL AREA 
March 18, 195*1- 
