Captain Alexander on the Pitclir-Lake of Trinidad. 95 



six miles to the southward of* Port of Spain. The western shore 

 of the island, for about twenty miles, is quite flat and richly wood- 

 ed, and though only one or two houses are perceptible from the 

 sea, the interior is well cultivated, and several small rivers, which 

 empty themselves into the Gulf of Paria, afford great facilities 

 for the transport of sugar to the ships which anchor off their 

 embouchures. As Naparima is approached, and the singular 

 mountain (at the foot of which San Fernandes is situated,) is 

 plainly distinguished, then the shore assumes a more smiling as- 

 pect, here one sees a noble forest, there a sheet of bright green, 

 points out a cane-field — Cocoa nut and palm trees are sprinkled 

 over the landscape, and gently wave their feathered foliage ; 

 now and then a well built house appears close to the water's 

 edge, with a verdant lawn extending from it to the sea, and the 

 ground sometimes broken into sinuosities, and then slightly un- 

 dulating. The beauty of this part of Trinidad is very great, 

 though, from some undrained swamp, poisonous malaria ex- 

 hale. 



At Point La Braye are seen masses of pitch, which look like 

 black rocks among the foliage ; they also advance into the 

 sea. At the small hamlet of La Braye, a considerable ex- 

 tent of coast is covered with pitch, which runs a long way out 

 to sea, and forms a bank under water. The pitch lake is situ- 

 ated on the side of a hill, 80 feet above the level of the sea, 

 from which it is distant three quarters of a mile ; a gradual as- 

 cent leads to it, which is covered with pitch in a hardened state, 

 and trees and vegetation flourish upon it. 



The road leading to the lake runs through a wood, and on 

 emerging from it, the spectator stands on the borders of what at 

 a first glance appears to be a lake containing many wooded 

 islets, but which, on a second examination, proves to be a sheet 

 of asj)haltum, intersected throughout by crevices 3 or 4 feet deep, 

 and full of water. The pitch at the sides of the lake is perfectly 

 hard and cold, but as one walks towards the middle with the 

 shoes off, in order to wade through the water, the heat gradually 

 increases, the pitch becomes softer and softer, until at last it is 

 seen boiling up in a Hquid state, and the soles of the feet become 

 offensively warm. The air is then strongly impregnated with bitu- 



