i 7 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



TRINIDAD AND BERMUDEZ ASPHALTS AND THEIR USE 

 IN HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION. II 



By CLIFFORD RICHARDSON, M. Am. Soc. C. E. 



NEW YORK CITY 



The Bermudez Asphalt Deposit 



From the mouth of the Orinoco, the northeastern coast of Venezuela, 

 which faces Trinidad, is low and consists of vast mangrove swamps, 

 through which run deep tidal estuaries. That portion forming part of 

 the State of Bermudez extends inland for many miles. It lies on the 

 opposite side of the Gulf of Paria from Trinidad. About 30 miles in 

 an air line from the coast the asphalt deposit, known as the Bermudez 

 pitch lake, is found at the point where a northern range of foothills 

 comes down to the swamp. The Guanaco River, a branch of the San 

 Juan, one of the large cahos or estuaries of this region, at about sixty- 

 five miles, in its winding course, from its mouth, runs within three 

 miles of the deposit, but it is five or six miles to a suitable wharfage 

 site. On the other hand, towards the north, a road runs to the 

 hills and to the village of Guaryquen. These are the means of com- 

 munication with the deposit. The so-called lake is situated between 

 the edge of the swamp and the foothills in what might be termed a 

 savanna. It is an irregular-shaped surface with a width of about a mile 

 and a half from north to south and about a mile east and west. Its 

 area is a little more than 900 acres, and it is covered with vegetation, 

 high rank grass and shrubs, one to eight feet high, with groves of large 

 moriche palms, called morichales. One sees no dark expanse of pitch 

 on approaching it as at the Trinidad pitch lake, and except at certain 

 points where soft pitch is welling up, nothing of the kind can be found. 

 The level of the surface of the deposit does not vary more than two feet 

 and is largely the same as that of the surrounding swamps. In the 

 rainy season it is mostly flooded and at all times very wet, so that any 

 excavation will fill up with water. . These conditions make it difficult 

 to get about upon it or to excavate pitch easily. 



It is readily seen that this deposit is a very different one from that 

 in the pitch lake of Trinidad. It seems to be in fact merely an over- 

 flow of soft pitch from several springs, over this large expanse of 

 savanna, and one which has not the depth or uniformity of that at 

 Trinidad. 



At different points there is at most a depth of 7 feet of material, 



