of the Island of Trinidad. 61 



siderable specific gravity, with littleor no lustre, resembling particular 

 kinds of coal, and so hard as to require a severe blow of the hammer 

 to detach or break it ; in other parts, it is so much softer, as to 

 allow one to cut out a piece in any form with a spade or hatchet, 

 and in the interior is vesicular and oily ; this is the character of by 

 far the greater portion of the whole mass ; in one place, it bubbles 

 up in a perfectly fluid state, so that you may take it up in a cup, and 

 1 am informed that in one of the neighbouring plantations there is a 

 spot where it is of a bright colour, shining, transparent, and brittle, 

 like bottle glass or resin. The odour in all these instances is strong 

 and like that of a combination of pitch and sulphur. No sulphur 

 however is any where to be perceived, but from the strong exha- 

 lation of that substance and the affinity which is known to exist be- 

 tween the fluid bitumens and it, much is, no doubt, contained in a 

 state of combination ; a bit of the pitch held In the candle melts like 

 sealing wax and burns with a light flame which is extinguished 

 whenever it is removed, and on cooling the bitumen hardens again. 

 From this property it is sufficiently evident that this substance may 

 be converted to many useful purposes, and accordingly it is univer- 

 sally used in the country wherever pitch is required ; and the re- 

 ports of the naval officers who have tried it are favourable to its 

 more general adoption ; it is requisite merely to prepare it with a 

 proportion of oil, tallow, or common tar, to give it a sufficient de- 

 gree of fluidity. In this point of view, this lake is of vast national 

 importance, and more especiafly to a great maritime power. It is 

 indeed singular that the attention of government should not have 

 been more forcibly directed to a subject of such magnitude : the 

 attempts that have hitherto been made to render it extensively useful 

 have for the most part been only feeble and injudicious, and have 

 consequently proved abortive. This vast collection of bitumen: 



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