The daily Alaskan., 1916-08-25


 Feet Deep Will Be obIiteratsd In
 Week-The Great Mass Is Solid, Yet
 In Constant but Slow Motion.
 Though disappointing at first sight to people who have the crater of an ac- tive volcano in mind, yet the famous pitch lake" of Trinidad is remarkable enough to satisfy most thoroughly long ere the visit has come to an end.
 The lake Is level plain about hun dred acres or so in extent. surrounded by low hills and dotted here and there with bushes and trees. The surface Is not a shimmering black, as might be supposed, but a dull, grayish blue col or, interSected with pools of shining water. Altogether it is very prosaic looking place, giving no hint of its real interest.
 One can walk where one pleases on the surface of the asphalt without any fear of sinking in, for 1t is quite solid enough to bear ones weight. If you stand in one place for a little while 1t feels hot to the feet, just like an as. phalted street on d very hot day.
 Much of the time fresh breeze blows, and one remembers with amuSe- ment the stories of tue imaginative writers who talked about Suding heat and oppressive atmosphere. The digging of the asphalt is a sim ple operation. A mattock is the only tool required, and under its blows the pitch breaks readily. The negroes em ployed are very skilled in the work and break out humps a couple of feet across, far too heavy for un ordinary man to carry.
 Only a very small amount of the ma terial gets broken into little pieces, so that scarcely any baskets are needed to carry the asphalt to the cars. A laborer simply lifts one or two Jumps, puts them on his head, walks a few wards and drops them into the car.
 The crude asphalt Us broken out. Is somewhat browniSl or earthly in color It is usually quite wet and filled with many holes. like bubbles, measuring up to an inch or more in diameter
 The gang of barefootcd workmen In one place may number thirty men, oI whom half dozen do the digging. l They work on space perhaps sixty feet long and forty feet wide, and in the course of day they will dig down to a depth of three feet, or more In | some places.
 Go to that same spot next morning. and you will find it little rough, but approximately level with the rest of | the lake. The hole has been mysteri- ously filled up during the night, and in the course of week all traces of the digging will be obliteratcd.
 This does not mean necessarily that fresh asphalt has come into the lake from underground sources. On the con- | trary, the excavations are filled by a very slow settling or leyeling of the | surface asphalt. There Is no such thing as "new" asphalt, by the way, for the transition from liquid petro- | leum to solid asphalt by natures proc ess involves a period of time that must be calculated in centuries.
 The digging done in past years has caused the general level of the lake to sink several feet. so that it is not abso- lutely ineXhauStiblc as some people i'm agine. It Is believed that fresh asphalt very slowly pushes itself upward into | the lake from the Subterranean depths, | but how large q quantity Is thus added | annually has not been calculated. | Near the middle of the lake the ma l terial Is less hard than elsewhere. and | In a few places soft asphalt may be seen in small. irregular patches OOzing up from below. This fresh asphalt is of about the consistency of putty and can be kneaGed and pulled in the hands without soiling them greatly In the main, however. the lake is solid as Dhalt.
 No one knows the depths of this mys- terlous lake. the only information on ] the subject being the fact that long ago a boring was made to a depth of | 135 feet without reaching the bottom. | The ''cOres" of this and other borings show that in consistency the asphalt remains the same to a very consider able depth.
 Curious as 1t may seem, there are many evidences that the entire mass comprising the lake is in constant but very slow motion The surface is a series of great folds. and in the creases between these the rain water gathers ] One writer has aptly compared the surface of the asphalt to the skin of a great elephant, the creases being the folds in his hide, Along the edges of the pools of water grass, bushes and small trees take root, forming green islands" of greater or less extent Victor Pitt-Kethley in Wide World | Magazine.