Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1911-01-27


water aud oil pipes aud a general
mass TO indicate that here Is a
great industry and along the side
hill OF the incline upward are num-
erous houses and barracks occu-
pied by the thousand and more |
laborers, general offices, store
houses, etc. The houses occupied
by the general manager and assis-
tants are built on the lower level
of the great pier, or on very long
piles, being entirely over the water.
The many roads and walks are
simply hardened asphalt; also
under the buildings which are
mostly built on piles or cement pill
lars few feet above the ground.
A quarter of a mile from the shore
up a slight incline brings us to the
great building, under whose roof
the contents of the push cars conf
ing from the lake are dumped into
the steel buckets constantly NOV
ing on the great cable. Here also
are the refining works, where the
raw material is melted and filled
into barrels, where it again hard
ems and is ready for shipment. We
can see thousands of barrels now
in that condition. And just be-
fore us there, only few rods away,
is the celebrated lake, which you
have come all the way from Island
Pond to see.
Nearly circular, and three miles
in circumference, in extent little
over one hundred acres, and now
depressed few feet below the sur
rounding level of the land, lies this
lake of bitumen or fossil pitch,
called asphalt. On the surface of
the lake the bituminous matter is
semi-solid, with small streams of
water and pools here and there,
but at a depth Of few inches the
mass is quite soft; in fact near the
center of the lake it is so soft on
the surface that you need to step
quickly or your feet will settle and
get stuck in the yielding pitch at
this point there is undoubtedly a
never ending yet imperceptible
movement upward from the depths
below, so that there is a slightly
bulged condition. From this
source it is supposed the lake is
being all the time replenished from
the hidden depths, as it is taker
from the surface to meet the de
mands of commerce. Formerly il
overlooked the banks so to speak
and covered as with a scale con
siderable Of h surrounding
country of lower level, and rur
even into the Gulf. but now it i:
taken out faster than the source
supplies the deficiency. In 1888:
only alb out 5000 tons were takel
out while last year the export wa
! nearly 235, 900 tons, which lowered
the surface level about S inches
1t is dug up in irregular SHAPED
chunks with spades, picks, etc.
and dumped into hand push car
, on little railway which runs fror
different sections of the lake to tn
, building mentioned. After it
= dumped into the hold of the vesse
at the pier, it settles togethe
:. again, so that on arrival at NeN
York or other ports, it has to a,
=. be picked out again in the unload
: ing. Near the outer surface Q
( edge of the lake there is no grea
depth, but in the center it ha
been impossible to find any bottor
with rods, and the supply may b
: reasonably supposed to be mex
4 haustible. No human being {
course knows its hidden source c
!" cause, but all this section of til
. world is more or less of volcani
). origin, and in this and other islant
. there are found what are suppose
. to be craters of extinct volcanoes
> and now, in some districts here i
. Trinidad, and not very far frol
= La Brea, are what are called mu
Il volcanoes, whose active connectio
= with the center of the earth seen
> to be maintained. IT may be th'
~ were it not for these, and the lax
e Trinidad would not be SO free fro
J. earthquake conditions these ma
- be vents for the hidden titan
- forces of nature. Some suppo:
- that the lake has direct connectic
= under the Gulf of Paria with tt
~ deposits in Venezuela 100 mile
- away. Of course you have III
a ticed that it is very hot here {
- the lake, so much so, that moi
.. but the natives can endure Il
- !. work. 100 in the shade is usua
~ with a corresponding increase
~, intensity of heat in the scorchir
~ sunlight. There are of cour
y some traditions among the count
3 folk, which have come down fro
~ the time of the Caribs, as to Il
~ demon powers which center'
& about this strange phenomenon
40 nature, but you are more intere:
~ ed in the present.
~ The land about the lake is CO
ne cred with a dense growth of trol
II cal vine and tree, except whe
ca man has come to clear away, al
=, to plant cocoa and cocoanut tree