a4 S. F. Peckham—Pitch Lake of Trinidad. 
months, and others that had been burned some time previous 
to my visit to them. I can imagine that after such a fire the 
resemblance of the overflow of the lake toa “black glacier” 
would be much more pronounced than when covered with a 
rank growth of vegetation, as it now is. It is not, however, 
the surface that flows, covered as it is, by masses of coke, iron- 
pitch, vegetation and rubbish. The houses in La Brea now 
all rest on blocks. In this position they are much more stable 
than on posts, although anything resting upon the overflow is 
unstable. It is the cheese-pitch, full of water and containing 
more or less gas, buried beneath these surface accidents, that 
has flowed and still flows. 
Although a large amount of clay and vegetable debris fills 
the interstitial spaces of the rough surface of the asphalt, the 
vegetation is not confined to such surfaces, but seems to 
flourish equally well upon the bare pitch, the roots penetrat- 
ing the pitch without the slightest difficulty, except where it 
had been converted by melting into iron-pitch. There is also 
considerable coke where the fires have been hottest. All of 
these impurities are carefully excluded from the pitch that is 
mined, both for boiling and for shipment in the crude state, 
by all of the men employed by the different companies in 
extracting it. This selection is not difficult, as the appearance 
of the iron-pitch is very different, and the amount very small, 
as compared with the pure or cheese-pitch. | 
Near the crest of the ascent to the lake the road divides, one 
branch passing to the left and south ascends over the rim of 
the basin of the lake, and skirting the lake for about a quarter 
of its circumference passes over the hill to the southwest, as 
described by Mr. Manross. The right hand branch follows 
the flow of the pitch and enters upon the lake simply by a 
change of grade from a sharp ascent to a very slight inclina- 
tion upwards towards the center of the lake. I was particu- 
larly impressed with this fact, and took pains to verify my 
first impression upon a second visit, as it proved conclusively 
that, notwithstanding the vast quantities of pitch that had 
been removed from the lake, there is still a movement out of 
the lake, glacier-like, down the slope to the sea. 
My first impression as I looked over the expanse of the lake 
was a surprise. I had expected a scene of desolation. Noth- 
ing could be further from the reality. In the center were the - 
islets so often described. Within and around them a dark 
area resembled the muddy bottom of a pond from which the 
water had been drawn off, with here and there patches and 
intervening streams of water remaining. From the border of 
this dark center, the vegetation arose higher and higher around 
almost the entire cireumference of the lake, until it reached a 
