£00 PITCH LAKE IN TRINIDAD* 



VI. 



Account of the Pitch Lake of the Island of Trinidad, teg 

 Nicholas Nugent, M. D., Hon. Mem. of the Geol. Soc* 



Visit to the JOEING desirous to visit the celebrated Lake of Pitch* 

 Trinidad 60 previously to my departure from the island of Trinidad, I 

 embarked with thai intention in the month of October, 

 1807, in a small vesse' at Port Spain. After a pleasant 

 sail of about th'rty miles down the gulf of Pavia, we 

 arrived at the point la Braye, so called by the French from 

 its characteristic feature. It is a considerable headland, 

 about eighty feet above the level of the sea, and per- 

 haps two miles long and two broad. We landed on the 

 southern side of the point, atthe plantation of Mr. Vessigny : 

 as the boat drew near the shore, I was struck with the ap- 

 pearance of a rocky bluff or small promontory of a reddish 

 brown colour, very different from the pitch which I had ex- 

 Porcehin j^s- pected to find on the whole shore. Upon examining this 

 ^ er *' spot, I found it composed of a substance coresponding to 



the porcelain jasper of mineralogists, generally of, a red 

 colour, where it had been exposed to the weather, but of 

 light slate blue in the interior : it is a very hard stone with 

 a conchoidal fracture, some degree of lustre, and is perfectly 

 •opake, even at the edges: in some places, from the action of 

 the air, it was of a reddish or yellowish brown, and an earthy 

 appearance. 1 wished to have devoted more time to the inves- 

 tigation of what in thelanguageof the Wernerian school is term- 

 ed the geognos tic relations of this spot, but my companions 

 were anxious to proceed. We ascended the hill, which was 

 entirely composed of this rock, to the plantation, where we 

 procured a negro guide, who conducted us through a wood 

 The lake de. about three quarters of a mile. We now perceived a strong 

 sulphureous and pitchy smell, like that of burning coal, and 

 soon after had a view of thelake, which at first sight appeared 

 to be an expanse of still water, frequently interrupted by 

 clumps of dwarf trees, or islets of rushes and shrubs: but 



* Trans, of the Geol. Society, vol. I, p. 69. 



scribed. 



