CATARACTS, AND INUNDATIONS K>3 



the capita!, an Indian village sank suddenly, and was 

 immediately replaced by a small lake of pitch, to the great terror 

 of the inhabitants." 



I have had no opportunity of ascertaining personally whether 

 these statements are accurate, though sufficiently probable from 

 what is known to occur in other parts of the world ; but I have 

 been informed by several persons that the sea in the neighbourhood 

 of La Braye is occasionally covered with a fluid bitumen, and in 

 the south-eastern part of the island there is certainly a similar 

 collection of this bitumen, though of less extent, and many small 

 detached spots of it are to be met with in the woods : it is ev>n said 

 that an evident line of communication may thus be traced btj \veen 

 the two great receptacles* There is every probability, that iix all 

 these cases the pitch was originally fluid, and has since become 

 inspissated by exposure to the air, as happens in the Dead Sea and 

 other parts of the East. 



It is for geologists to explain the origin of this singular pheno- 

 menon, and each sect will doubtless give a solution of the difficulty 

 according to its peculiar tenets. To frame any very satisfactory 

 hypothesis on the subject, would requiie a more exact investigation 

 of the neighbouring country, and particularly to the southward and 

 eastward, which I had not an opportunity of visiting. And it must 

 be remembered that geological inquiries are not conducted here with 

 that facility which they are in some other parts of the world ; the 

 soil is almost universally covered with the thickest and most iuxnria.it 

 vegetation, and the stranger is soon exhausted and overcome by 

 the scorching rays of a vertical sun. Immediately to the southward 

 the face of the country, as seen from La Braye, is a goo<i deal 

 broken and rugged, which Mr. Anderson attributes to some con- 

 vulsion of nature from subterranean fires, in which idea he is con- 

 firmed by having found in the neighbouring woods several hot 

 springs. He is indeed of opinion that this tract has experienced 

 the effects of the volcanic power, which, as he supposes, elevated 

 the great mountains on the main and the n .rihein side of the 

 i&land *. The production of all bituminous substances has certainly 

 with plausibility been attributed to the action of subterranean fires 

 on beds of coal, being separated in a similar manner as when 



* Vide Philos. Trans, vol. Ixxix. or Ann. Register for 1789. 



