The programme called for annual appropriations by each of the above-named powers of 100,000 francs (about $20,000 each), the appointment of commissioners and a general superintendent, the selection of a site for prosecuting the undertaking, and a board of scientific visitors, consisting of one member from each country. It is unnecessary to detail the proceedings for the first few months after the organization of the commission. Prof. Watson, of Chicago, the author of a scientific treatise called "Prairie Geology," was selected by President Fillmore, as the first representative of the United States; Russia sent Olgokoff; France, Ango Jeuno; England, Sir Edward Sabine, the present President of the Royal Society; and Belgium, Dr. Secchi, since so famous for his spectroscopic observations on the fixed stars. These gentlemen, after organizing at Paris, spent almost an entire year in traveling before a site for the scene of operations was selected. Finally, on the 10th of April, 1849, the first ground was broken for actual work at Dudzeele, in the neighborhood of Bruges, in the Kingdom of Belgium. The considerations which led to the choice of this locality were the following: First, it was the most central, regarding the capitals of the parties to the protocol; secondly, it was easy of access and connected by rail with Brussels, Paris and St. Petersburg, and by line of steamers with London, being situated within a short distance of the mouth of the Hond or west Scheldt; thirdly, and perhaps as the most important consideration of all, it was the seat of the deepest shaft in the world, namely, the old salt mine at Dudzeele, which had been worked from the time of the Romans down to the commencement of the present century, at which time it was abandoned, principally on account of the intense heat at the bottom of the excavation, and which could not be entirely overcome except by the most costly scientific appliances. There was still another reason, which, in the estimation of at least one member of the commission, Prof. Watson, overrode them all--the exceptional increase of heat with depth, which was its main characteristic.