164 On the Pilch Lake nfthe Island of Trinidad. 



is vesicular and oily : this is the character of by far the greater 

 portion oi' the whole mass; in 8nc place, it bubhies up in 

 a perfectly fluid state, so that you may take it up in a cup; 

 and I am informed that in one of the neighbouring planta- 

 tions there is a spot where it is of a bright colour, shining, 

 transparent and brittle, like bottle-glass or resin. The odour 

 in all these instances is strone, and like that of a combina- 

 tion of pitcli and sulphur. No sulphur, however, is any 

 where to be perceived; but from the strong exhalation of 

 that substance and the affinity which is known to exist be- 

 tween the fluid bitumens and it, much is, no doubt, con- 

 tained in a state of combination : a bit of the pilch held in 

 the candle melts like sealing-wax and burns with a light 

 flame, which is extinguished whenever it is removed, and 

 on cooling the bitumen hardens again. From this property 

 it is sufficiently evident that this substance may be con- 

 verted to many useful purposes, and accordingly it is uni- 

 versally used in the country wherever pitch is required ; and 

 the reports of the naval officers who have tried it are fa- 

 vourable to its more general adoption : it is requisite merely 

 to prepare it with a proportion of oil, tallow, or common 

 tar, to give it a sufficient degree of fluidity. In this point 

 of view, this lake is of vast national importance, and more 

 especially to a great maritime power. It is indeed singular 

 that the attention of government should not have been more 

 forcibly directed to a subject of such magnitude : the at- 

 tempts that have hitherto been made to render it extensively 

 useful have for the most part been only feeble and injudi- 

 cious, and have consequently proved abortive. This vast 

 collection of bitumen might in all probability afford an 

 inexhaustible supply of an essential article of naval stores, 

 and being situated ou the margin of the sea could be wrought 

 and shipped with little inconvenience or expense*. It would 

 however be great injustice to sir Alexander Cochrane not 

 to state explicitly that he has at various times, during his 

 lono" and active command on the Leeward Island station, 

 taken considerable pains to insure a proper and fair trial of 

 this mineral production for the highly important uses of 

 which it is generally believed to be capable. But whether 

 it has arisen from certain perverse occurrences or from the 

 prejudice of the mechanical superintendants of the colonial 

 dock-yards, or really, as some have pretended, from an ab- 

 solute unfitness of the substance in question ; the views of 



• This island contains also a great quantity of valuable timber, and several 

 plants which yield excellent hemp. 



the 



