November 12, 1907



Monsieur M.  Boule,

Professeyr de Paleontologie, Museum d'Histoire Naturelle,

PAris, France

Monsieur et Cher Colleague:-



I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 28th of September, which has been found by me upon my return to the Museum after a short scientific journey which I took to the Westerb STates in the Region of the Rocky Mountains.

 

It will give me pleasure in every respect to comply with your wishes in the matter of mounting the specimen and I shall cause the caudal vertebrae of the Diplodocus which is intended to be presented to your Museum to be arranged in the manner which yo suggest, reducing the length of the posterior base by three meters.  As you will observe by the photographs which I am sending you, we have already effected a great modification in  the mounting of the neck of the Diplodocus.  I am sending you a photograph of the specimen which is intended for His Majesty the Emperor of Germany, the provisional mounting of which has just been completed.  (The bases in this photograph, I may mention in passing, are simply covered with rough paper, a fact which makes itself apparent. They are unfinished, and must not be accepted as representing in any sense the finer installation.)  You will observe from this photograph that I have cuased the head to be placed much higher than was done at the British Museum.  I think the attitude is far more graceful and lifelike.  The curving of the tail as you propose seems to me to add to rather than to detract from the general appearance of the specimen.  I am pleased with suggestion.  Of course it will involve of necessity making the posterior base wider than than is the case at the British Museum, but this is a mtter of no consequence. 



In reference to the height of the  bases it will give me great pleasure to have our plans conform in every respect to your wishes so that the height of these bases may entirely agree with the height of the other bases which will surround the Diplodocus when displayed in the Gallery.



I am to-day writing to Mr. Blavette, the architect of your Museum, assuring him that the suggestion which he has made in common with yourself, that the bases should be constructed of oak, meets with our entire approval.  The fact is we have only one wish in the whole matter, my dear Dr. Boule, and this is that the President of the French Republic and the authorities of the National Museum in France should be pleased.  To consult their pleasure is our pleasure, and we are ready in all respects to comply if possible with the valuable suggestions which you may from time to time make.  I shall have plans immediately prepared conformed to your suggestions, and will submit them to you as well as to your architect for study, and shall ask you, when all matters have been finally decided, to ascertain from the firm mentioned by the architect and yourself the cost of the construction of the same, so that arrangements may be made promptly to contrct for the construction and delivery of the bases.  It is my wish and hope to come to Paris, accompanied