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War Department
Office of the Chief Signal Officer
Division of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce

Washington, D. C. Nov 4th 1871

Prof. I. A. Lapham
Asst to the Chief Signal Officer
Milwaukee Wis.

Sir:

The Chief Signal
Officer directs me to acknowledge
the receipt of your interesting report on
the recent great fires in the North West
and to say that he desires you to make
a thorough investigation of the meteor-
ological results of these fires visiting
the several localities if necessary.

Please state
whether in all or any cases they
were followed by strong winds &c [etc]
in confirmation of the theory of
Mr. Espy or whether the result
has been to disprove the cor-