206 



PITCH LAKE IN TRINIDAD. 



and has since become inspissated by exposure to the air, as 

 happens in the Dead Sea and Dthei parts of the east. 

 Geological in- It is for geologists to explain the origin of this singular 

 quiries diffi- phenomenon, and each sect will doubtless give a solution of 

 country! " tne difficulty according to its peculiar tenets. To frame any 

 very satisfactory hypothesis on the subject, would require a 

 more exact investigation of the neighbouring country, and 

 particularly to the southward and eastward, which 1 had not 

 an opportunity of visiting. And it must be remembered, that 

 geological inquiries are not conducted here with that facility 

 which they are in some other parts of the world ; the soil is al- 

 most universally covered with the thickest and most luxuriant 

 vegetation, and the stranger is soon exhausted and overcome 

 by the scorching rays of a vertical sun. Immediately to the 

 southward, the face of the country, as seen from la-Braye, is 

 a good deal broken aud rugged, which Mr. Anderson attri- 

 butes to some convulsion of nature from subterranean fires, 

 Hot springs in in which idea he is confirmed by having found in the neigh- 



the neighbour- jj 0ur j n or woods several hot spring*. He is indeed of opinion, 

 ing woods, ° . . 



that this tract has experienced the effects of the volcanic 



power, which, as he supposes, elevated the great mountains 

 on the main and northern side of the island*. The pro- 

 duction of all bituminous substances has certainly with plau- 

 sibility been attributed to the action of subterranean fires on 

 beds of coal, being separated in a similar manner as when 

 effected by artificial heat,and thus they may be traced through 

 the various transformations of vegetable matter. I was ac- 

 Nocoalknown cordingly particular in my inquiries with regard to the exist- 

 to exist here, ence of beds of coal, but could not learn that there was any 

 certain trace of this substance in the island ; and though it 

 may exist at a great depth, I saw no strata that indicate it. 

 A friend indeed gave me specimens of a kind of bituminous 

 shale mixed with sand, which he brought from Point Cedar, 

 about twenty miles distant; and I find Mr. Anderson speaks 

 of the soil near the Pitch-lake containing burnt cinders, but 

 I imagine he may have taken for them the small fragments 

 of the bitumen itself. 



An examination of this tract of country could not fajl, \ 



• Vide 79th vol. Fhilos. Trani. ; or Ann. Register for 1789. 



thinks 



