S. F. Peckham—Pitch Lake of Trinidad. 37 
“ Towards the center of the lake several detached areas are 
met with, the surfaces of which yield under the foot. On 
standing ten or fifteen minutes one may find himself ankle 
deep. A person standing long enough would undoubtedly 
sink and perhaps disappear in it; but in no place was it pos- 
sible to form those bowl-like depressions around the observer 
as described by former travelers.” 
“The water which filled the crevices of the pitch is clear 
and very pure. It is the favorite resort of all the washer- 
women for miles around. As the water is flowing now, the 
_ pitch has formerly flowed from the lake in all directions. The 
entire surface covered by it is estimated at 3000 acres. The 
pores of the pitch are full of water which oozes out on the 
slightest pressure, and by moistening the skin prevents adhe- 
sion. Streams of gas issue, sometimes rising through the 
water, but more frequently from small openings in the pitch 
above water level.” 
“Tn one of the star-shaped pools of water, a column of pitch 
had been forced up from the bottom, expanding into a sort of 
center-table about four feet in diameter. Pieces torn from 
the edge of this table sank readily, showing that it had been 
raised by pressure and not by buoyancy.” 
‘About a mile and one-half south of the lake I observed 
numerous beds of indurated clay filled with the remains of 
leaves and vegetation. A little further on appears a bed of 
brown coal and lignite, about twelve feet thick. It has such 
a dip and direction that, if continuous, it would pass under 
the lake at a great depth. About a mile to the northwest of 
the lake another bed of brown coal crops out upon the shore. 
It is about twenty feet thick. From the occurrence of such 
considerable accumulations of vegetable matter, so situated as 
apparently to pass under the lake, it seems reasonable to regard 
them as the source of the pitchy matter. Indeed, many pieces 
of wood may be observed in the beds of brown coal, which 
differ in no respect in their appearance from many of the 
pieces thrown up in the lake itself.” | 
Mr. Manross* is completely at sea in his points of the com- 
pass. , 
The observations upon which the descriptions of this lake, 
from which I have made careful abstracts, were based, were 
made from forty to one hundred and six years ago. I have 
been able to verify them in almost every particular, and these 
descriptions clearly portray the appearance and condition of 
the lake at the time I visited it in March, 1895. In addition 
to these descriptions, other observations quite different in 
_ character and purpose have been made concerning the island 
* This Journal IJ, xx, 153, 1855. 
