MORTON ON THE PITCH LAKE OF TRiiSIDAD. 69 



may be seen on many hill sides during our Nova Seotian winter, 

 where water has congealed in successive overflowings. The conclu- 

 sion is inevitable, that the Pitch Lake has been, and is still to some 

 extent, an immense Pitch spring or series of springs, and that the 

 depression from the western side of it to the shol-e of the Gulf of 

 Paria, is the bed down which the products of this vast spring has at 

 one time flowed, causing the appearances on the road and on the 

 shore, and pressing out into the Gulf has formed the point of pitch 

 above referred to. 



I have not been in a position to colisult any standard geological 

 works on the subject except Sir Charles Lyell's. And as my object 

 was not to compose a scientific essay, but merely to accompany the 

 specimens with a few remarks, I have confined myself to the result 

 of my own observations. 



Sir Charles' works contain little on the subject. In his " Prin- 

 ciples " (p. 250, 9th ed.) he says : 



" Fluid bitumen is seen to ooze from the bottom of the sea, on 

 both sides of the island of Trinidad, and to rise up to the surface of 

 the water. Near Cape La Braye there is a vortex which, in stormy 

 weather, according to Capt. Mallet, gushes out, raising the water 

 five or six feet, and covers the surface for a considerable space with 

 petroleum, or tar ; and the same author quotes Gumilla as stating 

 in his ' Description of the Orinoco,' that about seventy years ago, a 

 spot of land on the western side of Trinidad, near half-way between 

 the capital and an Indian village, sank suddenly and was immediately 

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

 tants." 



"It is probable," says Sir Charles in continuation, " that the 

 great pitch lake of Trinidad owes its origin to a similar cause." 



When on the spot I was not aware that such statements had been 

 published, and consequently made no special enquiry about them. 

 But I never heard anything corroborative of them, except that bitu- 

 men was sometimes seen in small quantities floating near La Brea. 

 Such a vortex as Capt, Mallet speaks of would be too notorious to 

 be overlooked by persons living there, when answering the enquiries 

 of strangers respecting the wonders of the place. Nor did I ever 

 hear of a small pitch lake, such as Gumilla speaks of. His location 

 9 



