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[printed letterhead]
No. [written] 1455 [printed] Smithsonian Institution,
[written] 1
[printed] Washington, D. C.

[written]
December 6. 1856

Dear Robert

I received your letter of Nov.
30, yesterday, and proceed to answer
it, though most of its queries have
already been responded to in letters
you have doubtless had since you
wrote

It is not necessary for you
to spend a great deal of time on
the article for the Patent office.
It should fill some 40 printed
pages of the Agricultural report,
and if exceeding that, should
be condensed. Very brief notices
of the carnivora will be sufficient:
the mink is perhaps the only species
of much importance to the farmer.
You merely need enumerate all
the known species of Illinois, dis-
missing most of the larger ones with
a few lines. Give good articles to
the moles, and the principal
rodents.

I wish very much that the