350 SPRINGS, RIVERS, CANALS, LAKES, 



5. Pitch Lake of the Island of Trinidad. 

 By Nicholas Nugent, M.D. 



BEING desirous to viit the celebrated lake of pitch previously 

 to my departure from the Island of Trinidad, I embarked with that 

 intention in the mouth of October, 1807, in a small vessel at Port 

 Spain. After a pleasant sail of about thirty miles down the Gulf 

 of Paria, we arrived at the point la Braye, so called by the French 

 from its characteristic feature. It is a considerable headland, about 

 eighty feet above the level of the sea, and perhaps two miles long 

 and two broad. We landed on the southern side of the point, at 

 the plantation of Mr. Vessigny : as the boat drew near the shore, I 

 was struck with the appearance of a rocky bluff or small promontory 

 of a reddish -brown colour, very different from the pitch which I had 

 expected to find on the whole shore. Upon examining this spot, I 

 found it composed of a substance corresponding to the porcelain 

 jasper of mineralogists, generally of a red colour where it had been 

 exposed to the weather, but of light slate-blue in the interior; it is 

 a very hard stone with a conchoidal fracture, some degree of lustre, 

 and is perfectly opake even at the edges ; in some places, from the 

 action of the air, it was of a reddish, or yellowish-brown, and an 

 earthy appearance. I wished to have devoted more time to the 

 investigation of what in the language of the Werneiian school is 

 termed the geognostic relations of this spot, but my companions 

 \vere anxious to proceed. We ascended the hill, which was entirely 

 composed of this rock, to the plantation, where we procured a negro 

 guide, who conducted us through a wood about three quarters of a 

 mile. We now perceived a strong sulphureous and pitchy smell, 

 like that of burning coal, and soon after had a view of the lake, 

 which at first sight appeared to be an expanse of still water, fre. 

 /juently interrupted by clumps of dwarf trees or islets of rushes and 

 .shrubs : but on a nearer approach we found it to be in reality an 

 extensive plain of mineral pitch, with frequent crevices and chasms 

 filled with water. The singularity of the scene was altogether so 

 great, that it was some time before I could recover from my surprize 

 so as to investigate it minutely. The surface of the lake is of the 

 colour of ashes, and at this season was, not polished or smooth so 

 as to be slippery ; the hardness or consistence was such as to bear 

 any weight ; and it was not adhesive, though it partially received the 



