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“...TRINIDAD
149
occupying a whole day. To go to Trinidad with-
out visiting the Pitch Lake would be like going
to Rome without entering St. Peter’s. The lake
is a vast deposit of bituminous matter, 114 acres
in extent. The surface, except for small wooded
islands, is bare of vegetation and hard enough to
bear foot traffic and also carts, while by the aid
of a sort of corduroy road made of palm branches,
it supports a cable tramway. The pitch is dug
out and loaded into buckets which are carried by
cars on the tramway. These buckets, suspended
on a cable, are conveyed by a system of telpher-
age along a jetty known as “ Brighton Pier,”
whence the pitch is shipped to all parts of the
world. It is possible to pick up masses of the
pitch and to mould it into shapes without soiling
one’s hands, the pitch being mixed with grit
and not pure, and almost as fast as it is dug
out, fresh material works itself in by natural
pressure from the sides and from below. The
lake is at...”
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“... coast of the latter island. No
Englishman can gaze upon it without a feeling of
pride, for it is the historic Diamond Rock which,
during the war with France in 1803, was garri-
soned for sixteen weeks by the crew of a British
cruiser, who, by means of ropes, hauled their guns
to its summit and defied their adversaries. Hood,
seeing that the French ships escaped him by
running between this rock and the Points de
Diamante, laid his seventy-four, the Centaur, close
alongside the Diamond, made a hawser fast to
the ship and to the top of the rock, which is...”
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“...WEST INDIAN INDUSTRIES 295
Jamaica to the United Kingdom. At first grave
doubts were expressed as to whether it would be
possible to bring the fruit successfully and in good
condition to Avonmouth, Bristol, the terminal port,
but with their characteristic enterprise Messrs.
Elder, Dempster & Co., the owners of the line
above referred to, overcame all difficulties, and
installed Messrs. J. & E. Hall’s cool-air system in
each of their ships, with the result that the quantity
of fruit now lost on each voyage is infinitesimal.
An increasing demand for Jamaica bananas in the
mother country has developed with surprising
rapidity, and a company known as Messrs. Elders
and Fyffes now have no less than thirteen vessels
bringing fruit to England from Jamaica and Costa
Rica as fast as it can be carried.
The Jamaica banana, which is the variety known Varieties of
as the Gros Michel., is cut when the fruit is three- Bananas-
quarters full, and consequently tourists must not...”
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