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[[preprinted]] UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY
WASHINGTON, D. C. [[/preprinted]]

July 3, 1911.

Mr. Alex Wetmore, 
Unalaska, Alaska.

Dear Mr. Wetmore:
Your letter of June 9 in relation to your work is received. Disappointing as it is in many respects, I can see that you have done the very best work possible and that it is in no wise your fault that you have so little time to spend on the objects of the expedition. I have no doubt moreover that the results will fully justify sending you, though apparently they are by no means to equal our expectations.

I know how you must have felt on board ship when you saw a rare bird like Fisher's Petrel nearly within arms reach and yet be unable to secure a single specimen. Like you I have experimented in catching goonies but never succeeded in landing my bird on account of the speed at which the ship was going. 

I told Merriam about the scarcity of Microtus on Unalaska together with an abundance of old sign, and he says this is quite characteristic of the islands. For some at present unknown reason they disappear on a given island almost entirely, but later on resume their normal numbers. Possibly such fluctuations in numbers are due to epidemics, which it is well known prevail among many rodents, or it may be due to the periodic abundance ^[[/]] of their enemies, like hawks and owls.