68 Mr. Anderson's Account of 
contained water fit for ufe during the year; but neither can I 
believe: for if, according to the firft afl'ertion, it was an homo* 
geneous mafs, fomething more than an external caufe mufl 
afFe£t it, to give it the prefent appearances : nor without fome 
hidden caufe can the fecond-be granted. Although the bot- 
toms of thefe ramified channels admit not of abforption, yet 
from their open expofure, and the black furface of the circumja- 
cent parts, evaporation muft go on amazing quick, and a fhort 
time of dry weather muft foon empty them ; nor from the 
fituation and ftrudture of the place is there a poffibility of fupply 
but. from the clouds. To (hew that the progrefs of evaporation 
is inconceivably quick here, at the time I vifited it, there 
were, on an average, tivo-thirds of the time inceftant torrents 
of rain ; but from the afternoon being dry, with a gentle 
breeze (as is generally the ca(e during the rainy feafon in this 
ifland,):, there evidently was an equilibrium between the 
rain and the evaporation ; for in the courfe of three days I 
law it twice, and perceived no alteration on the height of the 
water* nor any outlet for it but by evaporation. 
I take this bituminous fub fiance to be the bitumen nfpbaltum 
Linn^x., A gentle heat renders it ductile; hence, mixed 
with a little greafe or common pitch, it is much, u fed for the 
bottoms of (hips, and for which, intention it is collected by 
many,, and Ifliould conceive it a prefervative againft the Borer,, 
fo deftru£Vive to (hips in, this part of the world. 
Befidea this place, where it is, found in this folid ftate, it is> 
found liquid in, many parts of the woods; and at the diftance 
of twenty miles, from this. about two inches thick,, round holes, 
of three or four inches diameter, and often at cracks or, rents, 
t * 
Thii> is conftantly liquid, and. imells ftronger of tar than when 
indurated,, 
' V. 
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