a Trip to the West Indies, 21 
Another place of interest in Trinidad is the Pitch Lake; this 
is reached by boat from Port of Spain to La Brea in about four 
hours. La Brea is the most miserable, God-forsaken place I was 
ever in. Pitch everywhere. The shanties or houses are all 
made of timber, and are constantly having to be raised on fresh 
logs of wood, or they would in a short time disappear below the 
surface. Only the men and managers of the Pitch Lake live 
here, and a few store-keepers. It is most dreadfully dusty, and 
when one perspires (as it is quite easy to do) it leaves an un- 
pleasant deposit on the skin. The new Trinidad Asphalt 
Company works the Pitch Lake, and the pitch is sent to all 
parts of the world. Other persons having land adjacent also 
work the asphalt, which is constantly flowing from the lake to 
the sea. As fast as an excavation is made, soit fills up. These 
private holders of plots of land are looked upon by the Company 
as poachers, and the Company has done its best to buy them out, 
or to stop them by legal entanglements. The lake is about half 
a mile from the sea; in parts it is very soft, and any one standing 
on one spot long would sink in up to his knees in a very short 
time ; it is very strange that the asphalt does not stick to the 
boots, and on drawing one’s foot out it soons rises and finds its 
_ level. The surface of the lake is broken up by lagoons, or small 
water-ponds; the pitch has a strong smell of sulphuretted 
_ hydrogen. The direct rays of the sun being absorbed makes it 
_ very hot to the feet. When the pitch is dug out, it is sent down 
in buckets, suspended on a revolving steel cable, which carries 
it to the end of the pier where the ships lie alongside, and it is 
_ pitched into the holds. Lach trolley is weighed before being 
gripped on to the steel cable. We also saw them refining the 
_ pitch ; it is done by putting the blocks of pitch into large pans 
under which is kept a large wood fire. When soft it is well 
_ stirred, and the scum or impurities are removed, and the moisture 
in it is driven off; it is then ladled out into the wooden barrels, 
where it becomes hard, and is shipped in this form. I am told 
they can ship seventy-five tons of pitch per hour. The pier or 
_ jetty is about 1700 feet long, and the Company has its offices 
situated there ; the officers of the Company also live there. La 
_ Brea is one of the worst fever-traps in the island. 
_ Two other sights I think I should mention, which should be 
‘seen by the visitor ; they are the Blue Basin and the Maraccas 
Falls. The Blue Basin is on the north of the island, at the end 
of the Diego Martin Valley. It is a natural pool of water on a 
rock foundation, and surrounded on all but one side by precipitous 
rocks, over one of which a fine fall of water shoots into the basin 
below. The hilly steep ranges, which lie behind the rocks are 
all covered with thick tropical growth. The scenery all round 
8 very fine. The Maraccas Falls are even finer than the Blue 
