474 
Proceedings of Learned Societies, 
[Dec. I, 
Curinjr the drr season, as I have before 
relnarke(^, this pitch is. much softened, 
so that difierent bodies have been known 
siowiy to sink into it: if a quantity be cut 
out, the cavity left wiil he s!)ortly tilled 
up; and I have heard it related, that, 
wlren the Spaniards undertook formerly 
to prepare the pitch for oeconovnicai pur¬ 
poses, and had imprudently erected their 
cauldrons on the very la&e, they coni- 
pletciy sank intlie coarse of anight, so 
as to defeat their intentions. Number¬ 
less proofs are given of its being at times 
in this softened state : the negro houses 
of tlte vicinage, tor instance, built hy 
driving posts in the earth, frequently are- 
tu'isted or sunk on one side, - In many 
places it seems to hare actually over¬ 
flown like lava, and presents the wrinkled 
appearance which a sluggish substance 
would exhibit iu motion. 
This substance is generally tliought to 
be the asphaltum of p.aturalists: in dif¬ 
ferent spots, however, it presents dif¬ 
ferent appearance?. In some parts it is 
black, with a splintery conchoidal frac¬ 
ture, of considerable specific gravity, 
with little or no lustre, resembling par¬ 
ticular kinds of coal, ac.d so hard as to 
require a severe blow of the hammer to 
tletach or break it; in other parts, it is 
so much softer, as to allow one to cut 
out a piece in any form with a spa.de or 
hatchet, and iu the interior is vesicular 
and oily: this is the character of by far 
she grbaterportiun of t!;e whole mass ; in 
one place, it bubbles up in a perfectly 
fluid state, so that vou may take it up in 
a cup; and I am informed, thtit iu one 
of the neighbouring plantations, there is 
a spot where it ts of a bright colour., 
shining, transparent and brittle, like 
bottle-glass or resin. The cdiHir in all 
these instances is stmuir, and like tliat 
of a combination of pitch apid sulphur. 
No s'jlp>hur, however, is any where to 
be percehed; but, from the strong ex¬ 
halation ot that substance, and the afli- 
rsity which is known to exist between the 
fluid bitumens and it, much is, no doubt, 
rontained in a state of combination : a 
bit of the pitch held in the candle, melts 
like sealing-wax, and burns witii a light 
flame, which is extinguished whenever it 
is removed, and on cooling the bitumen 
hardens again. From this property it is 
sufficiently evident, that this substance 
may be converted to manv useful pur¬ 
poses, and accordingly it is universally 
used iu the country wherever pitch is 
required; and the reports of the naval 
officers who have tried it, are fivvourable 
4 
to its more general adoption: it is re- 
q'i!s;t€ merely to prepare it with a pro¬ 
portion of oil, tallow, or common tar, to 
give it a sufficient degree of fluidity. la 
this point of view, this lake is of vast na¬ 
tional importance, and more especially 
to a great maritime power. 
It i.-s indeed singular that the attentioa 
of government should not have bean more 
forcibly directed to a subject of such 
magnitude ; the attempts that liave hi¬ 
therto been made to retider it extensively 
usef ^ have for the most part been only 
feeble and injudicious, ai>d have conse¬ 
quently proved abortive. This vast col¬ 
lection of bitumen might in all probabi¬ 
lity afford an inexhaustible supply of an 
essential article of naval stores, and beins 
situated on the margin of the sea could 
be wrought and shipped with little incon¬ 
venience or expense. It would however 
be great injustice to sir Alexander Coch¬ 
rane not to state explicitly that he has 
at various times, during liis long and ac¬ 
tive command on the Leeward-l.fland 
station, taken considerable pains to in¬ 
sure a proper and fair trial of this mineral 
production for the highly important uses 
ot whic.b it is generally believed fo be 
capable. But, wubether it has arisen from 
certain perverse occuirences or from the 
prejudice of the mechanical superintea- 
dams of the colonial dock-yards, or 
really, as some have pretended, from an 
absolute unfitness of the substance ia 
question ; the views of the gallant ad¬ 
miral have, I believe, been invtfriahly 
thwarted, or his exertions rendered alto¬ 
gether fruitless, I was at Antigua in 
180P, when a transport arrived laden wnii 
this pitch for the use of tl-e dock-yard at 
English ifarbour i it had evidently been 
liastiiy collected with little care or '/eal 
from the beach, and u^s of course much 
contaminated with sand and other foreign 
substances. The best way would pro¬ 
bably be to have it properly prepared on 
the spot, and brought to the state ii> which 
it may be serviceable, previous to its ex¬ 
portation. I have frequently seen it used 
to pay the bottoms of small vessels, fir 
which it is particularly well adapted, as 
it preserves them from the numerous 
tribe of worms so abundant in tropical 
countrres. There seems indeed no rea¬ 
son why it should not when duly pre¬ 
pared and attenuated be applicable to 
all the purposes of the petr' leum of 
Z.mte, a well-known article of commerce 
in the Adriatic,-or that of the cli>trict in 
Burmah, where 400,000 hogsheads are 
said to be coilected annually. 
It 
