Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 725 of 779 - First - Home
We Shall Begin With The Most Eastern Extremity, The Island
Of Trinidad; Which Seems Rather To Belong To The Shore Of The
Continent Than To The System Of The Mountains Of The West India
Islands.
1. The pit which throws up asphaltum in the bay of Mayaro, on the
eastern coast of the island of Trinidad, southward of Point
Guataro.
This is the mine of chapapote or mineral tar of the
country. I was assured that in the months of March and June the
eruptions are often attended with violent explosions, smoke, and
flames. Almost on the same parallel, and also in the sea, but
westward of the island (near Punta de la Brea, and to the south of
the port of Naparaimo), we find a similar vent. On the neighbouring
coast, in a clayey ground, appears the celebrated lake of asphaltum
(Laguna de la Brea), a marsh, the waters of which have the same
temperature as the atmosphere. The small cones situated at the
south-western extremity of the island, between Point Icacos and the
Rio Erin, appear to have some analogy with the volcanoes of air and
mud which I met with at Turbaco in the kingdom of New Grenada. I
mention these situations of asphaltum on account of the remarkable
circumstances peculiar to them in these regions; for I am not
unaware that naphtha, petroleum, and asphaltum are found equally in
volcanic and secondary regions,* and even more frequently in the
latter. (* The inflammable emanations of Pietra Mala, (consisting
of hydrogen gas containing naphtha in a state of suspension) issue
from the Alpine limestone, which may be traced from Covigliano to
Raticofa, and which lies on ancient sandstone near Scarica l'Asino.
Under this sandstone (old red sandstone) we find black transition
limestone and the grauwack (quartzose psammite) of Florence.)
Petroleum is found floating on the sea thirty leagues north of
Trinidad, around the island of Grenada, which contains an
extinguished crater and basalts.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 725 of 779
Words from 197043 to 197368
of 211363