n, the damage already done may be summed up as
follows: The destruction of the Bruges and Hond Canal by the
formation of a basaltic dyke across it more than two hundred feet
wide, the burning of Dudzeele, and the devastation of about
thirty thousand acres of valuable land. At the same time it is
utterly impossible to predict where the damage may stop, inasmuch
as early this morning the mouth of the crater had fallen in, and
the flowing stream had more than doubled in size.

In consideration of the part hitherto taken by the Government of
the United States in originating the work that led to the
catastrophe, and by request of M. Musenheim, the Belgian Foreign
Secretary, I have taken the liberty of drawing upon the State
Department for eighty-seven thousand dollars, being the sum
agreed to be paid for the cost of emigration to the United States
of two hundred families (our own pro rata) rendered homeless by
the conflagration of Dudzeele.

I am this moment in receipt of your telegram dated yesterday,
and rejoice to learn that Prof. Agassiz has returned from the
South Seas, and will be sent forward without delay.

With great respect, I have the honor to be your obedient servant,

JOHN FLANNAGAN,
United States Consul at Bruges.

P.S.--Since concluding the above dispatch, Professor Palmieri did
me the honor of a special call, and, after some desultory
conversation, approached the all-absorbing topic of the day, and
cautiously expressed his opinion as follows: Explaining his
theory, as announced at the Congress, he said that "Holland,
Belgium, and Denmark, being all low countries, some portions of
each lying below the sea-level, he would not be surprised if the
present outflow of lava devastated them all, and covered the
bottom of the North Sea for many square leagues with a bed of
basalt." The reason given was this: "That lava must continue to
flow until, by its own action, it builds up around the volcanic
crater a rim or cone high enough to afford a counterpoise to the
centrifugal tendency of axial energy; and that, as the earth's
crust was demonstrated to be exceptionally thin in the north of
Europe, the height required in this instance would be so great
that an enormous lapse of time must ensue before the self-created
cone could obtain the