of the Island of Trinidad, 69 



pared and attenuated be applicable to all the purposes of the petro- 

 leum of Zante, a well-known article of commerce in the Adriatic, 

 or that of the district in Burmah, where 400,000 hogsheads are said 

 to be collected annually.* 



It is observed by Capt. Mallet in his Short Topographical Sketch 

 of the Island, that " near Cape la Brea (la Braye) a little to the south- 

 " west, is a gulph or vortex, which in stormy weather gushes out, 

 '** raising the water five or six feet, and covers the surface for a consi- 

 " derable space with petroleum or tar ;" and he adds that " on the 

 *' east coast in the Bay of Mayaro, there is another gulph or vortex 

 " similar to the former, which in the months of March and June 

 *' produces a detonation like thunder, having some flame with a 

 *' thick black smoke, which vanishes away immediately ; in about 

 " twenty-four hours afterwards, is found along the shore of the bay, 

 " a quantity of bitumen or pitch, about three or four inches thick, 

 " which is employed with success." Capt. Mallet likewise quotes 

 Gumilla, as stating in his Description of the Orinoco, that about 

 seventy years ago, " a spot of land on the western coast of this 

 *' island, near half way between the capital and Indian village sunk 

 " suddenly, and was immediately replaced by a small lake of pitch 

 •' to the great terror of the inhabitants." 



I have had no opportunity of ascertaining personally whether 

 these statements are accurate, though sufficiently probable from what 

 is known to occur in other parts of the world ; but I have been 

 informed by several persons that the sea in the neighbourhood of 

 La Braye is occasionally covered with a fluid bitumen, and in the 

 south-eastern part of the island there is certainly a similar collection 

 of this bitumen, though of less extent, and many small detached spots 



* Vide Aikia's Dictionary of Chemistry, quoted from Captain Cox in the Asiatic 

 Researches. 



