Caracas, Venezuela 
January 1, 1954 
Dr. James Zetek 
Canal Zone Biological Area 
Drawer C 
Balboa, Canal Zone 
Dear Jim$ 
My previous letter to you outlined my schedule, which has gone forward 
thus far according to plan. I am all set now to leave tomorrow morning for 
the Upper Orinoco with the Phelps expedition. 1 am looking forward with 
much interest to my first view of the great Amazonian forest, which we will 
be entering very soon on our way down toward the tributaries of the Amazon. 
When I left Washington the usual equipment for the work/n Panasad, that 
I plan for the end of February and March, was packed, ready to be sent to you 
Miss Weiss in the Correspondence Division of the Museum was hoping to get it 
on the way immediately in view of the threat of another dock strike in New 
York City. She was to write you regarding this at the proper time. In the 
meanwhile I have written to Perrygo to pack up another mosquito net for me 
and send it down to you by ordinary mail. 1 will appreciate it if you will 
hold it in your office until my arrival. It is something that I forgot to 
include when I packed the rest of the gear. 
I hope that you are now your usual self, and shall look forward to see¬ 
ing you in February. Before leaving Washington I gave John Graf a memorandum 
asking that credentials be sent down for Mrs. Wetmare and me. At the same 
time I asked that the entrance permits for both of us be mailed to me c/o. 
Zeppenfeldt, Hoogstraat 12, Curacao, N.Vs.l. We left there December 26, so 
possibly you have sent it on and it is there waiting for us. There is no 
great hurry about this since it will be some time during the. .first week of 
February before I get back to Caracas and I will then cross to Curasao, where 
Mrs. Wetmore will be waiting for me at the address just given, 
I will wire you from Curacao as soon as I have secured air reservations, 
informing you of the flight number and hour of arrival. The time will be 
short since I hope to push off to PanamA very soon after I get to Curasao, 
I believe I mentioned to you last summer that I would bring some items 
of outfit across from Curacao by air, including one of my 12 gauge shotguns. 
You told me that you did not think there would be any difficulty in this and 
I cannot see why there would be iryself since I have taken guns out, properly 
wrapped, without difficulty. The gun in question, for your information, is a 
16 gauge, double barreled shotgun No. 20279$, made by the Savage Arms Corp. 
I will probably have it rolled up safely in the canvas duffel bag that will 
carry my bedroll. Sincerely, 
