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7093/2       V.

Captain Seammon will probably go east this winter soon after our arrival in San Francisco. You will see him in all probability and will be able to understand the situation much better than I can explain it to you. You can then clear up the whale business. PA seems Dr. Ayres, who by the way also thinks of going east, first interested Capt. S. in Natural History and so I suppose considered him in one sort as his property. I thing however that Mr. Kennieott rather underestimated the extent it not the value of the work already done. I thing but two or three species are in any way thoroughly worked up, among them is the "California Gray", the "Blackfish" and a "humpback". We Obtained the under Jaw and some of the baleen of a "bowhead" at Plover Bay. The Jaw is about 14 ft arch. I so not know if it will pay to send and shall not have it forwarded till I hear from you. We have done nothing else on whales this year. I have the head, cervical vertebrae, and four flippers of a leopard or "hair" seal from Plover Bay, macerating. Col. Bulkley engaged a man at Lt. Pails to save the skeleton of a sea lion or walrus next spring and I shall endeavor to have a barrel of seals skills to put up, from this Island, they are thick as pebble stones there, as they kill fifty thousand a year.