46 S. F. Peckham—Pitch Lake of Trinidad. 
a quicksand, was projected bitumen, at intervals in very large 
amounts, so that irruptions of mud have coincided with and 
alternated with irruptions of bitumen, the whole building up 
the cone and at times overflowing it, while the basin has 
gradually filled with bitumen to the exclusion of mud. 
It is, however, equally evident that for an indefinite period 
there has been an outflow of bitumen from the crater towards 
the sea, at La Brea, not over its rim, but through a crevice in 
its side; in fact through its broken down side; and that, not- 
withstanding the vast quantities of asphalt now being taken 
from the lake by the concessionaires, the movement is still out 
of the lake. 
Capt. Alexander, in 1832, spoke of the flow out of the lake 
as “immense.” Manross, in 1855, says, “ this stream of pitch 
has been dug through in several places, averaging from 15 to 
18 feet in depth.” A well dug at one point on the slope of the 
overflow, was abandoned still in asphalt, at the depth of forty 
feet. Several village lots have been excavated to a depth of 
twenty feet, still in asphalt. The invariable reply of the 
negroes to the question, “Have you ever dug through the 
asphalt?” was, “No, sir.’ The conclusion that I reached on 
the ground is, that the asphalt flowing down the slope to the 
sea fills a ravine excavated by water, and that it is slowly mov- 
ing out of the lake with the pressure of the asphalt in the lake 
behind it. This conclusion is in harmony with the testimony 
of all of the observers above quoted for the last hundred 
years. 
Concerning the condition of, and appearance of, the pitch 
within the lake, I think it is quite certain from all the obser? 
vations above quoted that the pitch has gradually become 
harder and more stable during the last 106 years. I do not 
think that later observers have any right to question the verac- 
ity of those who have preceded them. Dr. Nugent says 
that in 1807, the center was so soft that it could be dipped up 
with a cup. Alexander describes it in 1832 as so unstable that 
the weight of a man produced a bowl-like depression to the 
depth of one’s shoulders and that the heat gradually increases 
as one walks off towards the middle with his shoes off. Man- 
ross 23 years later, says, “It may be that the material has 
become much harder since the first accounts of it were written ; 
but it is difficult to understand how the weight of a man can 
have displaced a mass of pitch equal to a ‘ great bowl’ as deep 
as the shoulders.” Kingsley 24 years later, is practically of 
the same opinion. At the time of my visit, a man was load- 
ing a cart near the center of the lake, and while they did not 
remain in one place long enough to secure a large load, there 
was no apparent danger of their being engulfed. 
