38 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION*. 
mation of tliem in their present economic use. However 
valuable they may be for other purposes, the one they are 
probably called upon to fulfil seems to outweigh all the 
rest ; for whatever may be the upshot of the Eoyal Com- 
mission to inquire into the capability of the British coal 
deposits to meet a continuance of the present enormous 
consumption of coal and the future exigencies of the mo- 
ther-country, there can be little doubt that, irrespective of 
any conclusion to which the inquiry may come, the Admi- 
ralty trials at Woolwich with petroleum as a steam fuel, 
must considerably enhance the value and importance of 
the bituminous products of these Colonies ; assuming that 
they can be made available for a similar purpose. 
i 
The paper which I have the honor to submit to the 
Scientific Association of Trinidad does not profess to offer 
any thing very original ; and beyond the foregoing reflec- 
tion with its incentive for further investigation into the ca- 
pabilities of their own mineral resources, which seem to 
give so fair a promise of being remunerative, I must limit 
my remarks exclusively to Barbados, from not having sa- 
tisfactory data upon which to treat of the vast accumula- 
tion of the bituminous deposit of Trinidad ; besides it may 
be presumption on my part to occupy myself with matter 
upon which there is no lack of talent and power of scien- 
tific research on thes pot to prosecute the necessary inqui- 
ries as to the use of the Trinidad asphalts and their adap- 
tation to the purpose of superseding coal as a steam fuel. 
A concise sketch of the geological structure of Barbados 
as introductory to the subject of this paper will not be ir- 
relevant, for reasons which will hereafter appear. 
The island exhibits two well-defined regions varying in 
aspect, the nature of the materials of which they respec- 
tively consist, and the manner of their formation. These 
