PETROLEUM 265 



little doubt that we shall greatly increase our output in the 

 future. 



India. One of our oldest oilfields is in the valley of the 

 Irrawaddy in Upper Bunnah, and there are also wells in the 

 Punjab, and in Beluchistan and Assam. 



Trinidad. Petroleum, exposed to the air, thickens, and 

 becomes solid, or nearly solid ; it is then known as asphalt, 

 and less correctly as pitch. The Asphalt Lake of Trinidad 

 has long been famous, and immense quantities are taken from 

 it every year. There is, however, no perceptible diminution, 

 as new supplies continually rise from below. ' The very ship 

 anchors in pitch ; the passengers disembark on a pitch wharf ; 

 pitch lies heaped up everywhere ; in whatever direction 

 the eyes are turned they light on nothing but pitch ; pitch, 

 and the current market price of pitch, is the one burden 

 of conversation.' ' The Lake is so solid that people can walk 

 on it, and yet it is in a state of continual " boil ".' 1 



It was not until 1912, however, that Trinidad began to 

 export petroleum. Mr. Algernon Aspinall 2 gives an interesting 

 account of the difficulties and discomforts of the pioneer 

 work in connexion with these oilfields. He tells how one day 

 a hunter brought in a sample of oil, which he had found in the 

 forest, but it was so pure in quality that the expert who 

 examined it refused to believe the man's story, and considered 

 that he was trying to palm off a specimen of refined oil as the 

 crude product, and so nothing was done. 



However, courageous and enterprising men persevered in 

 their researches, and at last, on April 29, 1912, at Brighton, 

 in the south of the island, the governor turned on a tap, and 

 oil from the wells flowed through the pipe into a tank steamer 

 which lay alongside the quay, and the next day she sailed 

 away with her cargo. 



Ever since that date petroleum has been regularly exported, 

 and the quantity is steadily increasing. 



1 Meiklejohn, A New Comparative Geography. 

 3 A. E. Aspinall, The British West Indies. 



