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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the deposit on the island of Trinidad very great importance as a source 

 of supply for all the Atlantic Coast cities and even those as far west as 

 Denver, while the Pacific Coast cities have been supplied from deposits 

 in California, which to some extent have competed with Trinidad pitch, 

 not only in the Mississippi Valley, but even in New York and other 

 Eastern cities. 



The deposits in Trinidad are comprised in the so-called lake and 

 extensive masses outside of it that have either overflowed from the lake 

 or have been derived from independent sources. In the aggregate the 

 extent of the deposits can only be estimated, as their boundaries cannot 

 be determined with any approach to accuracy. They amount, without 

 any doubt, to several millions of tons. 



Y\ nile I have classed the Trinidad pitch with the asphaltes, it is 

 really a unique substance. 1 have elsewhere called it 'Parianite,' from 



Fig. 



Loading Ships at Wharf. 



the beautiful bay of Paria, near the coast of which the deposit occurs. 

 The lake is a lake only in name; the deposit, without doubt, filling the 

 crater of an old mud volcano. As described for more than a century 

 preceding 1890, it exhibited an expanse of about one hundred and four- 

 teen acres, with a nearly circular outline, in which irregular areas of 

 pitch are separated by smaller areas of water. Around the borders of the 

 lake, vegetation, commencing at some distance from the edge, is rooted 

 in the pitch itself, and, increasing in vigor as the border is approached, 

 becomes upon the land a tropical jungle of canna and palms, perhaps 

 thirty feet in height. In the center is a circle of islands that float on 

 the pitch. The irregular water areas are many feet in depth, with 

 nearly perpendicular sides, containing very transparent water that ap- 



