TRINIDAD : THEN AND NOW. 



231 



end until it ends. We may not agree with them, but 

 let us respect them. " There are more things in 

 heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in 

 your philosophy. ' ' 



1 1 Handed from ages down ; a nurse's tale... 

 Which children open-eyed and mouth'd devour ; 

 And thus as garrulous ignorance related, 

 We learn it and believe." 



It was fortunate for me that I had not then 

 read Joseph's description of the lake, for I fear if I 

 had, although I am not a timid man, I would not have 

 ventured on visiting it. Let me, however, be thank- 

 ful that if what he graphically describes ever existed 

 except in his poetic imagination, it had all changed 

 long before our time. I have been on the lake many 

 times and I never sank to my ankles in the pitch, not 

 even so far as to cover the welts of my boots, nor did 

 I ever inhale the poisonous gases he describes. What 

 has become of the fountains of petroleum ? It is true 

 they have appeared elsewhere on the borders of the 

 lake, when bored for, but not on it ; if they existed in 

 Joseph's time they disappeared to appear elsewhere 

 when artificial means have been adopted to find 

 them and they now spout up hundreds of feet but are 

 under control, that there were sure indications of 

 petroleum, even in his time, cannot be doubted. Of 

 this later. 



In his graphic descriptions Joseph recommends 

 to visitors that a pair of worsted socks be worn over 

 ordinary stockings and that they should be kept wet 

 and that no shoes should be worn so that every part 

 of the lake (save the fluid part) may be traversed 



