278 ROCHESTER ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. [May I4, 



attractions for good citizens can it offer, than a low death rate and a 

 high health grade. 



Lastl}', the experience of our neighboring city once more shows 

 with what untliinking complacency we commit ourselves supinely 

 every day to the discretion and unproved competency of the man 

 at the throttle lever or the pilot's wheel. The opening of a valve 

 in a moment of thoughtlessness let in an army, as the hosts of 

 Cyrus who entered Babylon by way of the bed of the river Euphrates. 

 In the light of such an experience, how clear it is that the safety of 

 this city requires that the purity of Hemlock Lake should be 

 guarded as if it were a mine of diamonds. If the present means 

 and methods employed for its protection are good, let them be 

 made better, and progressively better, as sanitary science gives us 

 more and more intelligence and light. Nothing less than unrelaxing 

 vigilance, the certified intelligence, and fidelity of every officer 

 charged with the administration of this trust, can give the people of 

 this city that sense of safety and security which the city owes them. 



Remarks were made by Dr M. A. Veeder, Mr. J. Y. McClintock, 

 Dr. George W. Goler, Major William Streeter and the President, 



The third paper of the evening was presented, as follows : 



THE PITCH LAKE OF TRINIDAD. 



By Adelbert Cronise. 



contents. 



Page. 



1. The Island of Trinidad 278 



2. Pitch Lake 279 



3. The Pitch 280 



4. Exploitation 281 



5. Asphaltic Pavements 282 



6. Trinidad " Land Asphalt " 283 



7. Asphalts and Asphaltic Rocks 284 



The Island. 

 The Pitch Lake of Trinidad is not only a great natural curiosity, 

 but as the source of our " Trinidad Asphalt " it is a place of scientific 

 and commercial interest. A run of sixteen days from New York, on 

 a course considerably east of south, takes us to the island of Trinidad, 

 the most southerly of that group of the West Indies which we call 

 the Windward Islands, lying within eleven degrees of the equator and 

 in the longitude of the eastern part of Nova Scotia, or fifteen east from 



