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ARCTIC RESEARCH LABORATORY
BOX 1310 : FAIRBANKS, ALASKA

UNDER CONTRACT WITH
OFFICE OF NAVAL RESEARCH

SEND ALL CORRESPONDENCE . LABORATORY LOCATED AT
POINT BARROW, ALASKA

Via Air Mail

May 22, 1951

Me, James W. Bee
University of Kansas
Museum of Natural History
Lawrence, Kansas

Dear Mr. Bee:

Thank you for your letter of May llth and the more detailed
explanation of your proposed field work. 1 appreciate your
desire bo cover aS much country as possible, but must reiterate
that flying conditions on the Arctic Slope are much grimmer
than those in Gentral United States. I cannot insist that the
local bush flyers install auxiliary tanks in their planes

in order to take care of our peculiar needs. Bush flying and
other field work will be organized in such a manner as to

give as much support in the field as possible, but there can
be no guarantee concerning the number of flying hours that
will be available to any investigator.

Flights outside Petroleum Reserve No. h are not permitted
under the terms of the contract whereby Transocean Air Lines
operates bush planes for the Aretic Contractors. It therefore
will be impossible to comply with your very urgent request
that you be transported to your Station 5 located a consider-
able distance beyond the limits of the Reserve. However, as

I mentioned in one of my recent letters, every effort will be
made to give you adequate time in the field,

It is my personal opinion, and that is backed by those of
other people who have had a good many years of field work

in mammalogy, that a six or seven day stay ak one point is
rarely suriieient’ vo permit a collector to adequately sample
the mammal population ia that area. It is the general
consensus of opinion among those to whom I have talked that
one can more profitably devote a considerably longer time to