

PITCH DEPOSITS. 61 



found at Savanetta ; it is compact, and of a dead, dark fracture; 

 it burns with difficulty, and could not be used as fuel, unless 

 mixed with some other substance. 



Bitumen, or fossil pitch, another member of the carboniferous 

 system, exists in inexhaustible abundance throughout the whole 

 extent of the southern division. Point la Brea, in the county 

 of St. Patrick, is formed altogether of hardened pitch, which 

 extends into the gulf. The Pitch Lake, near the village of La 

 Brea, in the same locality, is the great natural curiosity of 

 Trinidad, and is really worth visiting. Soft bitumen also exists 

 within the site of the town of San Fernando, and between 

 Moruga and Guayaguayare ; the latter is known by the appella- 

 tion of u Lagon Bouf/'' from the peculiar noise produced by the 

 bubbling of the soft bitumen. At Oropuche, Guapo, and 

 Quemada, are likewise small craters of the same substance. 

 About two miles from the Yaro, in the spring of the year, a 

 periodical but brief submarine eruption occurs, throwing up 

 quantities of pitch, with which the beach is afterwards strewn. 

 Many of these bitumen craters exist at the bottom of the gulf, 

 along the line of coast from San Fernando to Irois ; their 

 eruptions occasionally agitate the waves, and eject considerable 

 quantities of petroleum. The pitch cast up on the beach is 

 generally in the form of lumps or cakes. 



It is to me evident that our pitch deposits must have a sub- 

 marine communication with those of El Buen Pastor, in the 

 canton of Maturin. " These springs/'' says Baron von Humboldt, 

 " proceed, probably, from the beds of limestone which form the 

 Brigantine and Cocollar." 



There exist, in different parts of the island, what we term 

 natural savannas, to distinguish them from artificial savannas, 

 or pasture grounds laid out for stock. They exhibit a peculiar 

 vegetation, characterised by a growth of coarse graminacese, 

 cyperoids and other plants, studded with stunted dwarf trees, 

 mainly the Chapara {Curate lid) and Bois-sang (Vismia). The 

 surface of these savannas is usually sandy and very poor. Some 

 of them are situated on the flanks and even summits of the 

 mountains; others on low, flat lands. The former may be 

 observed in the northern range, from St. Joseph to Arima ; the 

 soil is formed of coarse quartzose gravel and very poor. They 

 are dotted over with blocks of milky quartz, which from a 



