1894J CRONISE — PITCH LAKE OF TRINIDAD. 2S5 



The California asphalt is of two kinds, the semi-liquid, similar to 

 that used by the Babylonians, more like a mineral tar than a true 

 asphalt, and a solid asphalt which is used in road building without 

 mixing with other substances. About forty thousand tons a year of 

 this California asphalt is now used, but the cost of transportation by 

 land prevents its use here in the east as it can be brought much 

 cheaper from Trinidad or Europe. In Kansas City the California 

 Asphalt Company of San Francisco is about to establish a plant and 

 introduce its use in that section. 



The hardest in the series are the bituminous sandstones of Cali- 

 fornia, Utah and Kentucky and the bituminous limestones or asphalt ic 

 rocks of Switzerland, Sicily, Germany and France. The rock from 

 Val-de-Travers in the Canton of Neufchatel contains 20 per cent of 

 asphalt, that from Ragusa, Sicily, 12 per cent, and the Vorwohle rock 

 II per cent. Those from Seyssel, France, are the hardest and contain 

 but 10 per cent, of asphalt to 90 per cent, of carbonate of lime. 

 These rocks are of a brown color, and slightly malleable, and break 

 with an irregular fracture. They are reduced by grinding or roast- 

 ing. Those richest in asphalt form a good pavement without 

 mixture. To the hardest a small percentage of mineral tar is added 

 to produce a paving compound, or the German rock is mixed with 

 the softer Sicilian rock in the proportion of one to three, as is done 

 by the R.ock Asphalt Pavement Company of this city. 



The world's supply of asphalt is not limited to the supplies 

 named, but quantities of it are found in Canada, Venezuela, Peru, 

 Mexico, Argentina, Turkey, Syria and other countries. However it is 

 not probable that any large supply will be found which is at the .same 

 time so pUre, so easily taken out and so near a shipping point as that 

 of the Pitch Lake. 



The paper was illustrated by specimens of the Trinidad and 

 other asphaltums, and the commercial products. 



Remarks upon the paper of Mr. Cronise were made by Professor 

 A. L. Baker, Mr. Elon Huntington, Professor S. A. Lattimore and 

 several other members. 



Professor A. L. Arey drew the attention of the Academy to a 

 locality in Seneca Park, on the river bank, which had been formerly 

 regarded by the late Mr. George Harris as an Indian quarry and 

 shop site for the manufacture of flint implements, and stated that this 

 was an out-crop of the chert-bearing limestone of the Upper Clinton. 



