PITCH LAKE IN TRINIDAD. 205 



There seems indeed no reason why it should not, when duly 



prepared and attenuated, be applicable to all the purposes 



of the petroleum of Zante, a well known article of commerce 



in the Adriatic, or that of the district in Burmah, where 



400000 hogsheads are said to be collected annually*. 



It is observed by captain Mallet, in his Short Topogra- Bitumen 



phical Sketch of the Island, that " near Cape la Brea (la throw " " p in 

 * , .'«•••- ine neign- 



*' Braye) a little to the south-west, is a gulf .or , vortex, bouring sea. 



" which in stormy weather gushes out, raising the water 

 " five or six feet, and covers the surface for a considerable 

 ** distance with petroleum or tar;" and he adds, that *< on 

 " the east coast, in the Bay of Mayaro, there is another 

 " gulf 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 afterward is found along the shore of the bay a 

 " quantity 7 of bitumen or pitch, about three or four inches 

 «« thick, which is employed with success". Ciptain Mallet Land swallow- 

 likewise quotes Gumilla, as stating in his Description of th e eflu ,f /t* 

 Orinoco, that about seventy years ago, «« a spot of land on 

 *' the western coast of this island, near half way between 

 •f the capital and Indian village, sunk suddenly, and was 

 «' immediately replaced by a small lake of pitch, to the 

 «* great terrourof the inhabitants". 



I have had no opportunity of ascertaining personally Probably a 



whether these statements are accurate, though sufficiently subterr » ne ° u . s 

 ,... . • , ., reservoir of it. 



prooable trom what is known tooccur m ot e r 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 soutn-easter.; part 

 of the island there is certainly a similar collection of this 

 bitumen, though of less extent, and many such detached 

 spots of it are to be met with in the woods : it is eve, b aid, 

 that an evident line of communication may thus be traced 

 between the two great receptacles. There is every proba- 

 bility, that in all these cases the pitch was originally fluid, 



* Vide Aikin's Dictionary of Chemistry, quoted from Captain Cox 

 in the Asiatic Researches. 



