72 Dr. Nugent 07i iJje Pitch- Lake 



these earthy particles deposited by the Influence of powerful cur- 

 rents on the shores of the gulph of Parla, and particularly on the 

 western side of the island of Trinidad ; they might there find vast 

 collections of bituminous substances, beds of porcelain jasper, and 

 such other bodies, as may readily be supposed to arise from the mo- 

 dified action of heat on such vegetable and earthy materials as the 

 waters are known actually to deposit. They would further per- 

 ceive no very vague traces of subterranean fire, by which these 

 changes may have been effected and the whole tract elevated above 

 the ordinary level of the general loose soil of the country, as for in- 

 stance, hot springs, the vortices above mentioned, the frequent oc- 

 currence of earthquakes, and two singular semi-volcanic mounds at 

 Point Icaque, which, though not very near, throw light on the general 

 character of the country. Without pledging myself to any parti- 

 cular system of geology, I confess an explanation similar to this 

 appears to me sufficiently probable, and consonant with the known 

 phenomena of nature. A vast river, like the Orinoco, must for ages 

 have rolled down great quantities of woody and vegetable bodies, 

 which from certain causes, as the influence of currents and eddies, 

 may have been arrested and accumulated in particular places ; they 

 may there have undergone those transformations and chemical 

 changes, which various vegetable substances similarly situated have 

 been proved to suffer in other parts of the world. An accidental 

 fire, such as is known frequently to occur in the bowels of the 

 earth, may then have operated in separating and driving off the newly 

 formed bitumen more or less combined with siliceous and argillace- 

 ous earths, which forcing its way through the surface, and afterw^ards 

 becoming inspissated by exposure to the air, may have occasioned 

 such scenes as I have ventured to describe. The only other coun- 

 try accurately resembling this part of Trinidad of which I recollect 



