The Board of Directors and Shareholders of
Davis New York Venture Fund:
In planning and performing our audit of the financial statements of Davis New
York Venture Fund (the Fund) for the year ended July 31, 2000, we considered
its internal control, including control activities for safeguarding securities,
in order to determine our auditing procedures for the purpose of expressing
our opinion on the financial statements and to comply with the requirements of
Form N-SAR, not to provide assurance on internal control.
The management of the Fund is responsible for establishing and maintaining
internal control. In fulfilling this responsibility, estimates and judgments
by management are required to assess the expected benefits and related costs
of controls. Generally, controls that are relevant to an audit pertain to
the entity's objective of preparing financial statements for external purposes
that are fairly presented in conformity with generally accepted accounting
principles. Those controls include the safeguarding of assets against
unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition.
Because of inherent limitations in internal control, error or fraud may occur
and not be detected. Also, projection of any evaluation of internal control
to future periods is subject to the risk that it may become inadequate because
of changes in conditions or that the effectiveness of the design and operation
may deteriorate.
Our consideration of internal control would not necessarily disclose all
matters in internal control that might be material weaknesses under standards
established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. A
material weakness is a condition in which the design or operation of one or
more of the internal control components does not reduce to a relatively
low level the risk that misstatements caused by error or fraud in amounts
that would be material in relation to the financial statements being audited
may occur and not be detected within a timely period by employees in the
normal course of performing their assigned functions. However, we noted no
matters involving internal control and its operation, including controls
for safeguarding securities, that we consider to be material weaknesses
as defined above as of July 31, 2000.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of management, the
Board of Directors of Davis New York Venture Fund and the Securities and
Exchange Commission and is not intended to be and should not be used by
anyone other than these specified parties.
KPMG LLP
Denver, Colorado
September 8, 2000
