An Asphalt Lake In Venezuela

1901

Huge Deposit of Pitch — Foreigners Not Welcome

To the people of Venezuela this great deposit of asphalt is known as Largo la Brea, or the Lake of Pitch, says the Chicago News.

The aborigines used its output for pitching the seams of their canoes and a variety of other purposes, but it was comparatively unknown to the outside world until about 20 years ago, and no attempt was ever made to develop its resources until some 13 years ago, when the New York and Bermudez company purchased a concession covering a part of this valuable deposit from Horatio R. Hamilton, an American citizen then residing in Venezuela, and by marriage related to the late President Guzman Blanco.

After years of toil this American company succeeded in establishing a small plant at a place now called Guanoco, where a little pile wharf was built and subsequently an insignificant industrial railway was constructed which connected it with the pitch lake. The settlement of Guanoco, the headquarters of the New York and Bermudez company, is a little over 100 miles to the westward of Port of Spain, on the Island of Trinidad.

A narrow-gauge railroad, with 22-pound rails, connects the settlement of Guanoco with the asphalt lake, a scant six miles north. This railway, dignified by the name of the Guanoco & La Brea railway, passes through a virgin forest which has grown up on top of an unfathomable morass of swamp, and is constantly being reballasted to keep the rails in sight above the mud.

There are a few native huts at the lake, and the ordinary plant for asphalt mining. The lake stretches out for a distance of about five miles, and, say, three miles in width; but is divided by a narrow ridge of dry land with a few stunted trees on it.

The asphalt from the wonderful lake is the finest and purest in the world. The refining of this class of asphalt is simply heating it until the water is evaporated, for there is no scum, dirt or foreign matter in it. The supply is practically inexhaustible, and should last until the end of the world or the bottom drops out of it.

At certain seasons of the year this vast deposit is covered with a tall grass often six or eight feet high, and when it takes fire, as it often does, owing to the Indians being careless with their camp-fires, the grass will burn for days at a time, and when burned over leaves no mark save crusting the asphalt for perhaps an inch in thickness.

Very few white men have ever visited this wonderful lake, as it has always been the policy of the resident manager to keep his treasure-trove a sealed book. It is doubtful if one hundred foreigners, outside of the employes of the company and the poor Indians who trail across the great deposit, have ever set foot upon it.

It is impossible to estimate its actual value as a merchantable commodity, and to say at hazard that it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars is not putting the figures too high. It is a huge black sea of wealth, stretching out as far as the eye can reach, and dig and dig all the year around, the excavations fill up as rapidly as the workmen leave them. No amount of reasonable work in taking out asphalt can produce a visible diminution of the supply. It is a well of wealth that never overflows and is always filled to the brim. Never, under the broiling sun of the dry season or the teeming torrents of the rainy season, is its character or chemical properties changed or its commercial value altered. Its upcoming is wrapped in mystery, its birth time is unknown, nor can any man in the present time tell what its future will be for the use of mankind.

Although located in a swamp and only some four or five feet above sea level, it has proved to have been a very healthy locality. Death is practically unknown among the workmen at these mines. In 12 years only two graves are in the burying ground of the company. With the amateur doctors at headquarters the "sick list" seldom exceeds 4 per cent, and comprises for the most part mild intermittent fevers, easily cared for with mild cathartics and quinine.

The natives are gentle, kind hearted and most hospitable, are quick to learn, especially fond of mechanical work and are good, faithful workers. They are not inclined to be fractious or quarrelsome, and with a kindly disposed superintendent no trouble is ever experienced in working them in large gangs.