CATARACTS, AND INUNDATIONS. 153 



or hatchet, and in the interior is vesicular and oily : this is the charac- 

 ter of by tar the greater portion of the whole mass; in one place it 

 bubbles up in a perfectly fluid slate, so that yon may take it up in a 

 cup ; and I am informed that in one of the neighbouring plantations 

 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 

 strong, and tike that of a combination of pitch and sulphur. No 

 sulphur, however, is any where to be perceived ; but from the strong 

 exhalation of that substance and the aifinily which is known to exist 

 between the fluid bitumens and it, much is, no doubt, contained in a 

 state of combination : a bit of the pitch 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 sulstance may be 

 converted to many useful purposes, and accordingly it is universally 

 used in the country wherever pitch is required; and the reports of 

 the naval otlicers who have tried it are favourable 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. 

 lii this point of view, this lake is of vast national importance, and 

 more especially to a great maritime pow : er. It is indeed singular 

 that the attention of government should not have been more forcibly 

 directed to a subject of such magnitude : the attempts that have 

 hitherto been made to render it extensively useful have for the most 

 part been only feeble and injudicious, 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 on 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 long 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 superinteiidants of the colonial dock. 



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



plants \vliich yield excellent hemp. 



