36 S. F. Peckham—Pitch Lake of Trinidad. 
smooth stream, but that of a great number of streams each but 
a few yards or rods in breadth. Their surfaces are drawn out 
into all manner of contortions, and where the edges meet, 
small ridges have been thrown up and the pitch broken into 
fragments not unlike the scorie of lava currents. These frag- 
ments of pitch were on fire in several places, having been 
kindled by a fire that ran through the ‘bush’ a few weeks 
before.” 
“On ascending the last slope of this pitchy glacier a singular 
scene meets the eye. A black and circular plain of pitch one- 
half mile in diameter les flush with the edge of the stream. 
it is surrounded by a dense wall of forest in which various 
species of tall palm are most conspicuous. The lake itself is 
entirely bare of vegetation, except about twenty small clumps 
of trees which are arranged in a sort of broken circle about 
one-half way from the center to the circumference.” 
“The entire surface of this circular plain is seen to be inter- 
spersed by a network of water channels. Its appearance is 
exactly that of marbled paper. The pitch is divided into flat 
or slightly convex areas, mostly polygonal but sometimes cir- 
cular. They vary from one to eight rods in diameter. The 
intervening spaces are full of water. These channels (or spaces) 
have heretofore been described as crevices or cracks in the 
pitch. This description however is incorrect, for the material, 
though apparently almost as hard as stone, is yet far too plas- 
tic to admit of anything like a fissure remaining open in it. 
The channels are produced and maintained by the following 
singular process. Each of the many areas into which the Lake 
is divided possesses an independent revolving motion in this 
wise: at the center of the area the pitch is constantly rising up, 
not breaking out in streams, but rising en masse. It is thus 
constantly displacing that which previously occupied the center, 
and forcing it towards the circumference. The surface becomes 
covered with concentric wrinkles and the interior structure 
somewhat laminated. When the edge of such an expanding 
area meets that of the adjoining one the pitch rolls under, to be 
thrown up again at the center at some future period. The 
material is nearly soft enough to meet and. form a close joint 
at the top but descends with a rounded edge and ata considerable 
angle. The conclusion then to which a close observation leads 
us in regard to the present condition of this singular lake is, — 
not that it has suddenly cooled down from a boiling state, as 
heretofore described, but that, as the material is, it is still boil- 
ing although with an infinitely slow motion. As the descent 
of the glacier may be considered the slowest instance of flow- 
ing in nature, so the revolutions of the scarcely less solid bitu- 
men of this lake may be set down as the slowest example of 
ebullition.” 
