Mr. Seward to Mr. Dickinson.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your very interesting dispatch, No. 143, of 4th December, 1867, relative to a volcano which broke out in November last near the city of Leon. I have caused a copy thereof and the specimen of sand to be transmitted with a letter to Professor Joseph Henry, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
In acknowledging their receipt, he says, “that he has addressed a letter to you making further inquiries in regard to certain points, and shall publish the whole with such comments as may occur to ourselves in the next report of the Institution. The sand we shall have examined immediately. The direction in which it fell is an interesting fact in regard to the path of the upper current of air in the intertropical regions.”
Copies of your dispatch have also been furnished to the press.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
A. B. Dickinson, Esq., &c., &c., &c.