NATURAL PHENOMENA. 
59 
A short time since an American company established 
a manufactoiy for the purpose of extracting oil from the 
pitch, both for lighting and lubricating j)urposes, in 
which they succeeded. The establishment is now, how- 
ever, abandoned, from the unhealthiness of the locality, 
or the delicacy of those who managed it. But this is 
not the only purpose to which this inexhaustible reser- 
voir of pitch has been applied. Lord Dundonald, when 
on the West India station, a few years ago, succeeded in 
making water-pipes from the pitch, but they proved a 
failure, as it was found impossible to prepare a compo- 
sition that could resist atmospheric influences in that 
form. Large use, however, is made of pitch for flooring 
■stores and warehouses. Bor this purpose it answers 
w^ell, being a lasting, a cool, and, in the end, a cheap 
flooring. And not only in the island are large quan- 
tities used, but vessels are laden with it for various 
European ports. INIuch is shipped to Erance, where it 
is used not only for the manufacture of oil, but is em- 
ployed in forming “trottoirs,” or side pavements. Pitch 
oil is quite cheap in comparison with cocoa-nut oil, and 
is fast superseding the use of the latter — pitch oil lamps 
being in ahnost every house, where a few years ago 
nothing but cocoa-nut oil was burnt. 
In Trinidad we have large natural Savannahs and 
large Lagoons. 
The savannahs are generally situated near the sea- 
board, though not in every case, as from the town may 
be seen on the summit of a mountain, to the north, a 
large tract devoid of timber and bruslnvood, covered 
only with grass. The soil of the Grand and Couva 
Savannahs is somewhat poor. The Grand Savannah is 
an immense tract of level land, of many square miles in 
extent, lying low, and near the sea-board. During the 
wet season, there are many ponds, ravines, and swamps, 
in which are found, among other fish, the famous 
cascaradura, of which, if a man eat, it is said he is 
sure to come back to Trinidad, though he go away 
