The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-07-27
A NATURAL WONDER.
Trinidad's Lake OF Boiling Pitch, Which
10 Used in Making Asphalt.
From The Washington Post.

Trinidsd's Lake of Boiling Pitch, Which
10 Used in Making Asphalt.
From the washington Post.
The asphalt barks from the West Indies
are about the only vessels outside the coast
| ing schoonsrs that ever favor Washington
with visit. Two Of them are now lying on
the wharf at the foot of New Hampshire
avenue and are well worth visit.
Down in the hold the cargo looks like the
edge of dead lava field, black aud scanned
aud apparently as hard as rock but the
hardness is deceptive. Break up bushel OF
the pitch, as IL is known to the trade, and
pile the fragments on top Of the big asphalt
field, which fills the whole Of the lower deck,
and by tomorrow mOrniug they would dis
appear, sunken slowly back into the parent
mass. This slow-running quality makes the
cargo one Of the most detested among the
captains IN the island trade, for when the
ship has been listed over to port or starooard
for q couple of days, while running before a
stroug wind, the whole cargo will quietly
shift over aud have to be broken up and
trimmed back to its proper position to keep
the ship on..even keel
Trinidad, the island from which pracbi-
cally all the asphalt OF the world Is now
drawn, is q British possession in the Vest
Indies II was one of the little spots OF terra
frma against which Columbus ran when,
ia 1893, he pushed his explorations further
westward in search Of that mariners phan-
tasm the northwest passage The island
was then inhabited solely by CaribJ, Wild
and warllke but withal intelligent race, not
unlike the North American Indians peeu-
liar In their language, which, Ike the Choc-
taw OF our own western tribe, has been
mastered by few if any white men. For
many years the island remained neglected
dependency of Spain, with constantly
dwindling population, mostly natives and
imported negroes. In 1877 it passed into
tue hands OF the British government, and
has remained an English colony since.
There are but two towns OF importance
on the island, Port Of Spain and San Fer
nando. These live mostly by their imports,
the chief productions of the island beyond
its own necessities being asphalt and cocoa-
nuts. The sugar crop is large, but at the
present prices it does not pay to export it.
The population of the towns is mixed.
English is the court language, bat the
majority OF the people are negroes, descend
ants OF the old slave stock, who talk pa
tots Of mingled French, Spanish and En-
glish that Is described as the "most back
handedest lingo" any heather ever invented
The negroes are, like those Of t.e'
United States. beginning to feel their free
dom, and on the strength OF it getting the
big head In the second and third generation.
The resident whites designate them as
Sassy and as a class unbearable when
they have risen above the stage Of picking
asphalt. This is true of all bus the French
negroes from Martinique and the adj aceut
tricolor provinces, who by long association
have acquired the susve manner Of their
former owners, and are all Of them fit in
structors for an ordinary dancing master.
Among them impohteness is unknown.
Some of the original Caribs are still to be
found among the island people, but they are
rapidly disappearing, and in their place is
now seen the imported coolie. The coolie
trade, which was originally instituted to
furnish cheap labor for the plantations, was
In former times q terrible disgrace to the
islands and partook of more than all
the horrors OF the African slave trade.
Thousands OF the miserable Asistics were
sacrificed in the business by the greed and
inhumanity of the masters who brought
them over, and, although imported under
the guise OK a labor contract, not one in
hundreds OF them ever lived to return home.
Stringent laws governing the traffic are
now enacted. however, and, what is more to
the purpose, are well enforced, and many Of
the coolies by the time they, have served
their eight years contract out are we'll
to-do citizens, being paid for their work by
the piece and saving nearly all they earn.
The great pitch lake, which is the chief
wonder and attraction Of the island, is stu
ated In a low, sandy stretch OF the south
west coast near Cape Corbaay. The sur
rounding country is low and malarial, in
striking contrast 10 the high bills and rich
woodlands OF the ooas, farther back. The
lake Is owned by the British government
and leased by IL TO the Barber Asphalt Com
pany, an American firm Of immense capital,
which controls the trade for the United
States. Their preseat lease has forty-two
years yet TO run. The laborers are all
negroes. even the coolies shrinking from
the heat and low fsvsrs Of the place. The
lake itself is about . mile in diameter, hard
at she edges and softening toward the mid
die. The surface Is continually changing
apparently from some subterranean action,
and little Gases Of dry land, and even trees
and shrubs, will disappear i'll a single night,
and fresh islands Of soil be reared in other
places"
The lake is in all probability merely an
unusually large deposit of bitumen or soft
coal that has undergone its transformation
from decaying vegetable matter in contact
with water, and too near the surface for the
earth pressure above to harden it
thoroughly, Hundreds of negroes the year
cargo after cargo from a supply that seems
never 10 diminish. They work under over
seers OF their own color, and are paid at the
rate of 70 cents day. The asphalt crust is
broken up with picks and crowbars, and is
loaded on dump carts, drawn by a single
sun-dried mule, In whom the constant
boiling temperature seems TO have concsn-
trated all the native meanness OF his species
The carts crunch through long sandy road
down Co the wharf at the waters edge,
where the load 10 dumped and carried by
wheelbarrows on board the lighters, which
in turn carry IL out TO the ships, lying half
mile out In the shoal water. The rough
Jumps of pickings are boisted on board In
baskets and piled in the mold, where they
sink down into compact mass, requiring a
fresh filling the next day, and 80 on till the
solid cargo Is completed.
When the vessel reaches its port OF dis
charge the asphalt has to be broken upagaiu
before it can be removed from the hold.
Owing to the viscus quality OF the native
"pitch" 1t has, in course of ages, filtered
through the sandy soil around the lakes,
and of lats the Barber company has been
threatened by rival company, which has
begun mining operations on the island not
far from the confines of the older company's
territory, unoovering great fields of asphalt
that Is, il anything, better after its fltering
process than the original deposit.
Didn't Get the Squew's Picture.
a Denver paper relates ON amusing episode in