234 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ing between a range of mountains and the shore o tone of the estuaries 

 that enter the northern part of the delta of the Orinoco from the Bay of 

 Paria. The lake lias an irregularly shaped surface, about one mile and a 

 half by one mile in dimensions, giving an area of something less than 

 1,000 acres. This area is covered with rank grass and shrubs, from one 

 to eight feet in height, with groves of large Moriche palms. There is no 

 extended surface of clean pitch as at Trinidad; but instead, at certain 

 points, soft pitch wells up as if from subterranean springs. As the gen- 

 eral surface of the deposit is not more than two feet above the surround- 

 ing swamp, in the rainy season it is flooded, and at other times so low 

 that any excavation will immediately fill with water. 



Instead of being more than a hundred feet in depth as at Trinidad, 

 this deposit is a shallow exudation from numerous springs, over a wide 

 surface, from a mere coating to from seven to nine feet in depth, the 

 average being perhaps four feet. The largest of the areas covered with 

 soft pitch is not more than seven acres in extent. The soft material 

 has become hardened in the sun at the edges, but at the center is too 

 soft to walk upon, in this respect resembling many of the deposits of 

 less extent in California. This pitch is also too soft to hold permanently 

 the escaping gas, as at Trinidad, but when covered with water it ri>es 

 in mushroom-like forms. 



Some of these areas have been burned over, producing from the 

 combustion of the vegetation and of the asphaltum itself an intense heat- 

 that has converted the bitumen into coke and glance pitch. When 

 this crust of hardened material is removed, beneath it is found asphal- 

 tum that may be used for paving. 



Under the classification that I have adopted, the bitumen of the 

 Bermudez deposit is nearly pure asphaltum, which has been formed by. 

 the heat of the sun and by fire, from an exudation of maltha, or mineral 

 tar, over a wide expanse, beneath the coke and other products of combus- 

 tion, while here and there are masses of glance pitch, which are the 

 result of less violent action of heat. 



Many of the West India islands, from Trinidad around to Cuba, 

 contain deposits of asphaltum. The most noted among them are the 

 Mumjack of Barbadoes and the asphaltum veins of Cuba. These, how- 

 ever, have not entered commerce, with the exception, perhaps, of the 

 very pure asphaltum found in Cardenas harbor, which is obtained in 

 limited quantities and is used in varnish-making. None of these are- 

 used in paving. 



In Mexico there are very extensive deposits of asphaltum of great 

 purity, but up to the present time they have not entered commerce. 



In Texas, and extending into the Indian Territory, there axe large 

 deposits of both siliceous and calcareous asphaltes. In Uralde county, 

 Texas, near Cline, to the west of San Antonio, on the Southern Pacific 



