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[[underline]]1865[[/underline]][[underline]]Jan[[/underline]]
The office fell only ten minutes after they left. They had [[time?]] to save very little all the recorded letters of the Inst. The report almost ready for the press &c. were destroyed a drawer of articles on meteorology collected for a number of years by Father [[prints?]] & observations & reflections of his own was destroyed. They were writing in the office when the crackling of the flames above them warned them of the danger placing cloths over their mouths they endeavoured to obtain the papers of value but were nearly suffocated by the smoke. We are in some what better order to day but are wearied out with the effort to restore our property to proper places. My one great effort was to preserve Father's books If we had left them upon the shelves they would have been uninjured as it is I am afraid many of them are lost.
[[underline]]26th[[/underline]] Another busy tiresome day has passed in the endeavor to produce order out of confusion. We find [[end page]]
[[start page]] [[underline]]1865[[/underline]] [[underline]]Jan[[/underline]]
many of our articles destroyed but much less injured than we expected owing to the kind care of our friends The apparatus room, the picture gallery the Regents rooms & lecture room were destroyed I went this morning to visit the scene of destruction. All Smithson's personal effects, all Dr. Hare's philosophical apparatus, the Stanley Indian Gallery of portraits have all perished  We entered the apparatus room first The dismantled walls & towers rose high above us reminding us of the ruins of some English Abbey. Mr. Welling was my companion we picked our way over the cinders & burnt bricks through the lecture room to the Picture Gallery  The remains of the dying gladiator lay scattered about we picked up a few pieces but they crumbled in our fingers. The blue sky above us formed a beautiful roof but we dreaded storms too much not to be glad to learn that something pleasing to the eye but a protection to the museum of curiosity below us w[[?]] 
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