of the Island of Trinidad, G5 



fish are caught in it, and particularly a very good species of mullet. 

 The arrangement of the chasms is very singular, the sides, which of 

 course are formed of the pitch, are invariably shelving from the 

 surface, so as nearly to meet at the bottom, but then they bulge out 

 towards each other with a considerable degree of convexity. This 

 may be supposed to arise from the tendency in the pitch slowly to 

 coalesce, whenever softened by the intensity of the sun's rays. 

 These crevices are known occasionally to close up entirely, and we saw 

 many marks or seams from this cause. How these crevices originate 

 it may not be so easy to explain. One of our party suggested that 

 the whole mass of pitch might be supported by the water which 

 made its way through accidental rents, but in the solid state it is of 

 greater specific gravity than water, for several bits thrown into one 

 of the pools immediately sunk.* The lake, (I call it so, because I 

 think the common name appropriate enough) contains many islets 

 covered with long grass and shrubs, which are the haunts of birds 

 of the most exquisite plumage, as the pools are of snipe and plover. 

 Alligators are also said to abound here, but it v^as not our lot to en- 

 counter any of these animals. It is not easy to state precisely the 

 extent of this great collection of pitch ; the line between it and the 

 neighbouring soil is not always well defined, and indeed it appears 

 to form the substratum of the surrounding tract of land. V/e may 

 say, however, that it is bounded on the north and west sides by the 

 sea, on the south by the rocky eminence of porcelain jasper, before 



* Pieces of asphaltum are, I believe, frequently found floating on the Dead Sea ia 

 Palestine, but this arises probably from the extraordinary specific gravity of the waters 

 of that lake which Dr. Marcet found to be 1.211. Mr. Hatchett states the specific gra- 

 vity of ordinary asphaltum to vary from 1.023 to 1.165, but in two varieties of that of 

 Trinidad it was as great as 1.336 and 1.744, which led Mr, Hatchett to form a conjec- 

 ture which I shall afterwards notice. 



