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[[preprinted]] GOUCHER COLLEGE
Baltimore, Maryland [[/preprinted]]

January 17, 1924

Mr. Waldo L. Schmitt,
National Museum,
Washington, D. C.

My dear Mr. Schmitt:

I do not know whether you have noticed the announcement of the Carnegie Institution in [[underline]] Science [[/underline]] of January 4, stating that the Tortugas Laboratory will be open next summer to a small number of investigators.

If you are interested in making your own collections of Tortugas Decapods, and working them up in the excellent fashion in which you handled those of San Francisco Bay, this may possibly be just your opportunity.

I can assure you that the decapod fauna of Tortugas is fairly rich, and that its ecological study would be very interesting: so interesting, indeed, that if you provided the necessary taxonomic basis, and did not care to go farther, I should almost be tempted to undertake it myself some day; or, if you cared to go no farther, to collaborate with you in some way in working up the ecological side, where my experience with the divinghood, and a certain amount of information already gathered regarding the behaviour of the crabs in nature, might be of some value.

I should be glad to know how you feel about it.  For although I have no official standing [[strikethrough]] the [[/strikethrough]] in the matter, I do know many things that might be of service to you in shaping your plans, and for purely personal reasons should very much like to see you work up these crustacea, if opportunity permits.

Yours very truly,
^[[W. H. Longley]]