424 S. F. Peckham—The Pilch Lahe of Trinidad. 



Farther on I struck the road to the lake, which appeared to me 

 exactly as Mr. Manross had described it forty years ago. The 

 houses in the village were in the same condition described by 

 Dr. Nugent in 1807. The slope leading up to the lake was in 

 exactly the condition in which all previous observers had described 

 it, as resembling a lava-flow — a black glacier. The several points 

 at which asphalt had been and was being excavated, showed in the 

 most admirable manner that the movement of the asphalt down the 

 slope and towards the sea is still in progress. Every excavation 

 was in a short time partially refilled by a movement ot the asphalt 

 up from the bottom and in from the sides, the cavity in time 

 becoming filled full to the level of the surrounding area. One 

 illustration of this fact was the spot from which the noted cargo 

 of the Teneriffe was taken, every trace of former excavation having 

 completely disappeared.^ 



The Trinidad Bituminous Asphalt Company were excavating a lot 

 near the road, and had also recently uncovered a lot that had become 

 almost completely refilled in a- few months, after the removal of 

 several thousand tons of asphalt. Farther up the slope the Trinidad 

 Asphalt Company were taking out asphalt from lots on the Belle 

 Vue estate. These lots, like most of the others, were covered with 

 a dense tropical jungle, consisting of palms, sedges, canna, and 

 other plants, from three to ten feet in height. It did not need the 

 testimony of Mr. Manross to show that in all probability fire had 

 more than once consumed this mass of vegetation, producing a 

 terrific heat, that had melted and converted into so-called " iron- 

 pitch " much of the surface of the pitch. The "iron-pitch" is 

 present in greater or less quantity, both within and without the 

 boundaries of the lake, wherever fire has consumed the vegetation, 

 and consists simply of melted pitch which has been heated so hot 

 as to deprive it of its water and more volatile constituents, causing 

 it to flow in streams, often to considerable distances. Below these 

 melted masses the pitch lies in its normal and unaltered condition. 



It must, however, be constantly borne in mind, while reading 

 the statements of different observers made on different occasions, 

 that the lake and its principal overflow have presented different 

 phenomena at different periods. While it was evident at the time 

 I visited the overflow that fire had swept over its surface, it was 

 equally evident that it had for a long time been free from any such 

 visitation. I have seen similar flood-plains of asf)halt in California 

 that had been on fire for months, and others that had been burned 

 some time previous to my visit to them. I can imagine that after 

 such a fire the resemblance of the overflow of the lake to a "black 

 glacier" would be much more pronounced than when covered with 

 a rank growth of vegetation, as it now is. It is not, however, the 

 surface that flows, covered as it is bj'^ masses of coke, iron-pitch, 

 vegetation, and rubbish. The houses in La Brea now all rest on 



^ I was told by those who witnessed the digging of this cargo, that apparently no 

 care was exercised in its selection. One gentleman declared that it was the dirtiest 

 cargo of pitch ever sent frOm the island. 



