The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1905-11-29
VAST LAKE OF ASPHALT
VISIT TO THE SOURCE OF MUCH
OF OUR STREET PAVEMENT.


natural wonders of the world, but
rarely visited and little known, writes
Brighton tTrinidad) correspondent of
the New York Sun. It's location and
surroundings are not such as to re-
commend it to the tourist, although
Brighton as the crow flies is but %
miles from Port OF Spain, one of the
most attractive ports of the West In
dies.
The Trinidad lake or pitch and the
Bermudez lake in Venezuela supply
the bulk of the asphalt Of commerce,
and since the recent notification OF
the Bermudez concession by President
Castro, backed up by the Venezuelan
supreme court, the Brighton lake has
taken on added Importance.
Brighton has no claim to existence
aside from the btuminous pitch that
nature here sends bubbling up from
the bowels of the earth. The lake
is about quarter Of mile from the
steamship pier. Nearby are quarters
for two hundred workmen, refining
plant, Offices and quarters for the half
dozen Americans representing the
company, and that is all, except for
the fierce tropical sun eternally beat
ing down, and the sharks that play in
the harbor.
But as a natural curiosity and as a
commercial enterprise the lake is of
absorbing interest. Imagine huge
asphalt plaza Of more than a hundred
acres, softened by the sun, oversrown
In spots with weeds, covered after
rain with pools of water, and you
have the famous pitch lake-a big
black semi-solld poad of asphalt, with
surface fairly firm and apparently
placid, but in reality treacherous and
eternally in motion.
Around the edges runs tramway
with an endless cable hauling the
loaded cars to the refinery and bring
ing the empty ones back again. Along
this line where the pitch is hardest,
all the mining of the product is done
the black workmen digging 1t out
with pick and shovel.
It is necessary to shift the scene
of operations only along the line, new
er toward the center, rs in two days
time the slowly moving vlscous mass
of pitch continually flowing from the
center has refilled the excavations
and made them ready for the work
men again. Every day the rails of
the little tramway are lifted and the
slowly sinking ties moved a few
inches one way or the other In order
that the railway may not entirely dis
appear in the bottomless ooze.
Bottomless it may well be called,
for soundings nave been made until
and sounding apparatus have been
crushed and swallowed up, to be dis
gorged months later. The mining Of
the product is lowering the level of
the lake at the rate Of about six
inches a year.
The center of this huge volcanic
crater is the source of supply. Here
we see the pllch boiling up in almost
a purely liquid state, spreading out
over the lake in dozens of streams,
gradually hardening and imperceptl-
bly, flowing toward the boundaries in
an attempt to find level. Except for
space at the center, which you
might cover with macintosh, one
may safely walk over the entire sur
face of the lake; and even at the cen
ter, as the superintendent demonstrat-
ed to us, you may, il you care for
that sort of thing, run forward, dig
the warm pitch for a souvenir and re-
tire in great haste without sinking
more than ankle deep in the muck.
1t is horrible to contemplate the
thought of being caught by this aw-
ful black quicksand and relentlessly
entombed in lJs depths. Not long ago
negro workman heroically offered
himself for an experiment designed
to ascertain how long it would take
for a man to become engulfed in the
pitch. For more than an hour he
slowly sank until only the upper part
of his body remained in sight and
then his companions, in a burst of
cruel humor, made as if to leave him
to his fate. His vociferous appeals
for mercy melted their hearts. Planks
were thrown out over the pitch, as
they are used in rescuing skater
VINO has broken through the ice, and
after an hours hard work the victim
was once more free and happy.
The output of the lake last year was
about 100000 tons. Most of the pro-
duct is shipped north in crude
state. The cars of pitch are picked
up from the cable way as they come
from the lake by an overhead trolley
line, run to the water front and dump
ed into the holds Of chartered steam
ers.
The asphalt hardens in the hold and
has to be dug out with picks when
the cargo is discharged. A small
amount Of the product is refined on
the spot by steam process and ship
ped to South American ports, ready
! for use in paving. The refined prod
ucts represents a loss of 2S percent