

THE COCAL. 337 



the many traditional accounts of that event, the following bears a 

 very plausible aspect : it is to the effect, that a schooner, laden 

 with coco-nuts, was wrecked on this coast, and the nuts washed 

 ashore by the surf ; the locality being favourable, they sprouted, 

 grew up, and spontaneously propagated to a large extent. What- 

 ever be its origin, the Cocal consists of about 10,000 coco-trees, 

 more or less, some of them very old, others quite young, and a 

 great many in full bearing. They may give, on an average, a 

 monthly crop of, say 100,000 nuts, yielding 1,150 gallons of oil 

 per month, or 13,800 gallons per annum. The quantity at 

 present manufactured is 12,000 gallons. The manufactory has 

 been erected about mid-way betwen the rivers Lebranche and 

 Mitan, so that the carriage of nuts, across the Mitan, from near 

 the Guataro, to the establishment, is a tedious affair. It is worked 

 by a steam-engine of six-horse power. The kernel extracted 

 from the shell is bruised by means of grooved rollers, then reduced 

 to a pulp by a mill-stone ; the pulp is next placed in double- 

 bottomed pans, heated by steam, which process has for result the 

 evaporation of a certain proportion of water, and a coagulation of 

 the albuminous ingredients of the pulp. The mass is then sub- 

 mitted to the action of an hydraulic press, and the oil allowed to 

 deposit ; it is finally drawn off into casks, carted to the landing- 

 place at the mouth of the Lebranche, and put on board of a 

 vessel, anchored under the lee of Point Manzanilla, for transport 

 to Port-of- Spain. 



The sea has a tendency to encroach upon the land at the 

 Cocal, whilst the Mitan is gradually encroaching southward to a 

 considerable extent : the destruction of a large number of coco- 

 trees is the result of this counteraction. The plantation, how- 

 ever, may not only be preserved in its actual area, but it might 

 also be extended by steady cultivation, when two establishments 

 might be maintained one as at present existing, and the other, 

 between the Mitan and the Guataro. The Cocal is leased, for a 

 term of years, at the annual rate of 1,200 dollars. 



The county of Nariva may be said to consist altogether of 

 virgin land : it is partly level and swampy, partly undulating and 

 hilly. Both the level and hilly tracts are very imperfectly known, 

 and suppositions only more or less plausible can be formed, 

 as to the nature of the country and its geological formation, 

 from incomplete surveys made, at different periods, by Mr. John 



v 



