THE PITCH LAKE OF TRINIDAD.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 21, 26 January 1898, Page 2

THE PITCH LAKE OF TRINIDAD.

The celebrated "Pitch Lake' of Trinidad has been the theme of every traveller to that island since the time of Sir Walter Raleigh. The lake is about 11-1 acres in area, and has been found to have varying depths from 10ft to 130 ft; it is possible to walk or ride over the whole surface without danger of sinking' except in the centre where the asphalt is soft and its depth unascertainable. The asphalt is dug from the surface .and thrown into trucks which run upon a tramway laid on the inside .edge of the lake. After about, forty-eight hours the traces of a day's digging1 are scarcely to be found, the holes having filled up again with fresh asphalt. The loaded buckets of asphalt are carried by an

OVERHEAD CABLE RAILWAY to the end of a pier, which stretches 1,700 ft out. to sea, and the asphalt is dumped into the steamers and sailing vessels, which lie on both sides of the pier, for. cargo.

Twenty years ago there was not a street in the world laid with Trinidad asphalt, and now there are 2,000 miles of it.

Trinidad was taken from the Spaniards by the gallant Abercromby, just 100 years ago, and the pitch lake has remained the property of the Crown ever since., but its resources had not been utilised until the last thirty years. It is now leased to a company on certain terms, the most important of which is that it pays to the Government a royalty and duty on every ton of a«phalt dug from the lake, with a large sum o naceount of same on February 1 to the Crown Agents for the Colonies at Westminster. Last year this sum amounted to no less than £27,500. Asphalt, indeed, is nowadays Trinidad's third largest export.