Part 34
Near Point la Braye, (Tar point,) the name assigned to it on account of its characteristic feature, in the island of Trinidad, is a lake which at the first view appears to be an expanse of still water, but which, on a nearer approach, is found to be an extensive plain of mineral pitch, with frequent crevices and chasms filled with water. On its being visited in the autumnal season, the singularity of the scene was so great, that it required some time for the spectators to recover themselves from their surprise, so as to examine it minutely. The surface of the lake was of an ash color, and not polished or smooth, so as to be slippery, but of such a consistence as to bear any weight. It was not adhesive, although it received in part the impression of the foot, and could be trodden without any tremulous motion, several head of cattle browsing on it in perfect security. In the summer season, however, the surface is much more yielding, and in a state approaching to fluidity, as is evidenced by pieces of wood and other substances, thrown upon it, having been found enveloped in it. Even large branches of trees, which were a foot above the level, had, in some way, become enveloped in the bituminous matter. The interstices, or chasms, are very numerous, ramifying and joining in every direction; and being filled with water in the wet season, present the only obstacle to walking over the surface. These cavities are in general deep in proportion to their width, and many of them unfathomable: the water they contain is uncontaminated by the pitch, and is the abode of a variety of fishes. The arrangement of the chasms is very singular, the sides invariably shelving from the surface, so as nearly to meet at the bottom, and then bulging out toward each other with a considerable degree of convexity. Several of them have been known to close up entirely, without leaving any mark or seam.
The pitch lake of Trinidad contains many islets covered with grass and shrubs, which are the haunts of birds of the most exquisite plumage. Its precise extent can not, any more than its depth, be readily ascertained, the line between it and the neighboring soil not being well defined; but its main body may be estimated at three miles in circumference. It is bounded on the north and west sides by the sea, on the south by a rocky eminence, and on the east by the usual argillaceous soil of the country.
MUD LAKE OF JAVA.
The following details relative to the volcanic springs of boiling mud in Java are extracted from the Penang Gazette.
Having received an account of a wonderful phenomenon in the plains of Grobogna, a party set off, from Solo, in September, 1814, to examine it. On approaching the place, they saw what at first appeared like the surf breaking over the rocks, with a heavy spray falling to the leeward. Alighting, they went to the “Bluddugs,” as the Javanese call them, which they found to be an elevated plain of mud, about two miles in circumference, in the center of which immense bodies of soft mud were thrown up to the hight of ten or fifteen feet, in the form of large bubbles, which bursting, emitted great volumes of dense white smoke. The largest bubbles, of which there were two, rose and burst some seven or eight times a minute, throwing up from one to three tuns of mud, the smell of the smoke from which was very offensive, like the washings of a gun-barrel. It was both difficult and dangerous to go near the large bubbles, as the surface, except where it had been hardened by the sun, was all a quagmire. They went, however, close to a small bubble, (the plain was full of them, of all sizes,) and observed it for some time. It appeared to heave and swell, and when the air within had raised it to some hight, it burst, and the mud fell down in concentric circles, and then remained quiet till again it was raised, again to burst; which was at intervals of from one to two minutes. The water drained from the mud was collected by the Javanese, and being exposed to the sun deposited crystals of salt.
Next morning the party rode to a place in the forest, to view a salt lake, a mud hillock, and various boiling pools. The lake was about half a mile in circumference, of dirty-looking water, boiling up all over in gurgling eddies; the water being cold, bitter and salt, with an offensive smell. The mud hillock, which was near, was about fifteen feet high, in the form of a cone, with a base of eighty, and a top of eight feet diameter. The top was open, and the interior, which was full of boiling and heaving mud, was found to be eleven fathoms deep. Every rise of the mud was attended by a rumbling noise from within; and the mud was more liquid than at the bluddugs, and unattended by smoke. Near the foot of this hillock was a small pool of water, like that of the lake, boiling violently; and some two hundred yards distant, two larger pools or springs of the same general description, the smell of which was very offensive, and the boiling of which could be heard at quite a distance, resembling the noise of a small waterfall. The water both of the bluddugs and of the lake, is used medicinally by the Javanese, and also, as stated above, for the making of salt, which is gathered in considerable quantities, and the government income from which adds not a little to the public revenues. The general cause of the phenomena here witnessed, is supposed, beyond all question, to be volcanic; the salt water being thrown up by this agency in a heated state, and thus mingling with the soil to produce the boiling and heaving mud above described.
SALT LAKE OF UTAH.
Before leaving the subject of lakes, springs, &c., we must not omit to mention the Great Salt lake of Utah territory, which has been gazed upon with interest by many an emigrant, passing with his family, as represented in the following cut, to his far western home. This lake lies in a region abounding with scenery of unrivaled magnificence and beauty. “Descend from the mountains,” says a late writer, “where you have the scenery and climate of Switzerland, to seek the sky of your choice among the many climates of Italy, and you may find, welling out of the same hills, the freezing springs of Mexico, and the hot springs of Iceland, both together coursing their way to the great salt sea in the plain below. The pages of Malte Brun provide me with a less truthful parallel to it, than those which describe the happy valley of Rasselas, or the continent of Balnibarbi. In the midst of this interesting region, the most remarkable object is the Great Salt lake: which, in the saltness of its waters, in the circumstance of its having no outlet, and being fed from another and smaller lake of fresh water, (with which it is connected by a stream which has appropriately been called the Jordan,) and in the rugged character of some portions of the surrounding region, bears a remarkable resemblance to the Dead sea of Palestine. Instead, however, of lying one thousand feet below, it is more than four thousand feet above the level of the sea; and its waters, being an almost pure solution of common salt, are free from the pungent and nauseous taste which characterizes those of the Dead sea. This lake is about seventy miles long, and thirty miles wide, and is so intensely salt that no living thing can exist in it; and by evaporation in hot weather, it leaves on its shores a thick incrustation of salt.
[Illustration: THE EMIGRANT FAMILY.]
Some twenty-five miles south of this, and connected with it by the river Jordan, as mentioned above, is Utah lake, a body of fresh water, some thirty-five miles in length, which abounds with trout and other fish. And some seven hundred feet higher still, is Pyramid lake, on the slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains, so named from a singular pyramidal mount rising from its transparent waters to the hight of some six hundred feet; and walled in by almost perpendicular precipices, in some places three thousand feet high. Some distance from here, too, are the _boiling springs_, described by Fremont, the largest basin of which is several hundred feet in circumference, and has a circular space at one end some fifteen feet in diameter, entirely occupied with the boiling water. A pole sixteen feet in length, was entirely submerged on thrusting it down near the center; and the temperature of the water near the edge was two hundred and six degrees. In this vicinity also, are appearances similar to the _mirages_ of the great deserts of the old world. In traveling over the salt deserts of the Fremont basin, his party saw themselves reflected in the air, probably, as Fremont himself suggests, from the saline particles floating in the atmosphere, and in some way affecting its refracting power. The entire region, is one of great wildness and grandeur.
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ATMOSPHERICAL PHENOMENA.
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METEORS.
From look to look, contagious through the crowd The panic runs, and into wond’rous shapes The appearance throws: armies in meet array, Thronged with aerial spears and steeds of fire; Till the long lines of full-extended war In bleeding fight commixt, the sanguine flood Rolls a broad slaughter o’er the plains of heaven. As thus they scan the visionary scene, On all sides swells the superstitious din. Incontinent; and busy frenzy talks Of blood and battle; cities overturned, And late at night in swallowing earthquake sunk, Or hideous wrapt in fierce ascending flame; Of sallow famine, inundation, storm; Of pestilence, and every great distress; Empires subversed, when ruling fate has struck The unalterable hour: even nature’s self Is deemed to totter on the brink of time. Not so the man of philosophic eye, And aspect sage; the waving brightness he Curious surveys, inquisitive to know The causes, and materials, yet unfixed, Of this appearance beautiful and new.—THOMSON.
The nature of those splendid phenomena of the heavens which are embraced under the general term meteors, can not be so well elucidated as by an extract from the travels of Messrs. Humboldt and Bonpland to the equinoctial regions of the new continent. The sublime wonders described by the former of these travelers were witnessed by them at Cumana, a city of Venezuela, in South America.
“The night of the eleventh of November, 1779, was cool and extremely beautiful. Toward the morning, from half after two, the most extraordinary luminous meteors were seen toward the east. M. Bonpland, who had risen to enjoy the freshness of the air in the gallery, perceived them first. Thousands of bolides (fire-balls) and falling stars, succeeded each other during four hours. Their direction was very regular, from north to south. They filled a space in the sky extending from the true east thirty degrees toward the north and south. In an amplitude of sixty degrees the meteors were seen to rise above the horizon at east-north-east, and at east to describe arcs more or less extended, falling toward the south, after having followed the direction of the meridian. Some of them attained a hight of forty degrees; and all exceeded twenty-five or thirty degrees. There was very little wind in the low regions of the atmosphere, and this blew from the east. No trace of clouds was to be seen. M. Bonpland relates, that from the beginning of the phenomenon, there was not a space in the firmament equal in extent to three diameters of the moon which was not filled at every instant with bolides and falling stars. The first were fewer in number, but as they were seen of different sizes, it was impossible to fix the limit between these two classes of phenomena. All these meteors left luminous traces from five to ten degrees in length, as often happens in the equinoctial regions. The phosphorescence of these traces, or luminous bands, lasted seven or eight seconds. Many of the falling stars had a very distinct nucleus, as large as the disk of Jupiter, from which darted sparks of vivid light. The bolides seemed to burst as by explosion; but the largest, those from one degree to one degree and fifteen minutes in diameter, disappeared without scintillation, leaving behind them phosphorescent bands (_trabes_) exceeding in breadth fifteen or twenty minutes, or sixtieth parts of a degree. The light of these meteors was white, and not reddish, which must be attributed, no doubt, to the absence of vapors, and the extreme transparency of the air. For the same reason, under the tropics, the stars of the first magnitude have, at their rising, a light evidently whiter than in Europe.
“Almost all the inhabitants of Cumana were witnesses of this phenomenon, and did not behold these bolides with indifference; the oldest among them remembered, that the great earthquakes of 1766 were preceded by similar phenomena. The fishermen in the suburbs asserted, that the fire-work had begun at one o’clock; and that, as they returned from fishing in the gulf, they had already perceived very small falling stars toward the east. They affirmed at the same time, that igneous meteors were extremely rare on those coasts after two in the morning.
“The phenomenon ceased by degrees after four o’clock, and the bolides and falling stars became less frequent; but we still distinguished some toward the north-east, by their whitish light, and the rapidity of their movement, a quarter of an hour after sunrise. This circumstance will appear less extraordinary, when I state that in full daylight, in 1788, the interior of the houses in the town of Popayan was highly illumined by an aerolite of immense magnitude. It passed over the town when the sun was shining clearly, about one o’clock. M. Bonpland and myself, during our second residence at Cumana, after having observed on the twenty-sixth of September, 1800, the immersion of the first satellite of Jupiter, succeeded in seeing the planet distinctly with the naked eye, eighteen minutes after the disk of the sun had appeared in the horizon. There was a very slight vapor in the east, but Jupiter appeared on an azure sky. These facts prove the extreme purity and transparency of the atmosphere under the torrid zone. The _mass_ of diffused light is so much less, as the vapors are more perfectly dissolved. The same cause that weakens the diffusion of the solar light, diminishes the extinction of that which emanates either from a bolis, Jupiter, or the moon, seen on the second day after her conjunction.
“The researches of M. Chladni having singularly fixed the attention of the scientific world upon the bolides and falling stars, at my departure from Europe, we did not neglect during the course of our journey from Caraccas to the Rio Negro, to inquire everywhere, whether the meteors of the twelfth of November had been perceived. In the savage country, where the greater number of the inhabitants sleep out in the air, so extraordinary a phenomenon could not fail to be remarked, except when concealed by clouds from the eye of observation. The Capuchin missionary at San Fernando de Apura, a village situated amid the savannas of the province of Varinas, and the Franciscan monks stationed near the cataracts of the Orinoco, and at Maroa, on the banks of the Rio Negro, had seen numberless falling stars and bolides illumine the vault of heaven. Maroa is south-west of Cumana, and one hundred and seventy-four leagues’ distance. All these observers compared the phenomenon to a beautiful fire-work, which had lasted from three till six in the morning. Some of the monks had marked the day upon their ritual; others had noted it by the nearest festivals of the church. Unfortunately, none of them could recollect the direction of the meteors, or their apparent hight. From the position of the mountains and thick forest which surround the missions of the cataracts and the little village of Maroa, I presume that the bolides were still visible at twenty degrees above the horizon. On my arrival at the southern extremity of Spanish Guiana, at the little fort of San Carlos, I found a party of Portuguese, who had gone up the Rio Negro from the mission of St. Joseph of the Maravitains, and who assured me, that in that part of Brazil, the phenomenon had been perceived, at least as far as San Gabriel das Cachoeiras, consequently as far as the equator itself.
“I was powerfully struck at the immense hight which these bolides must have attained, to have been visible at the same time at Cumana, and on the frontiers of Brazil, in a line of two hundred and thirty leagues in length. But what was my astonishment, when at my return to Europe, I learned that the same phenomenon had been perceived, on an extent of the globe of sixty-four degrees of latitude, and ninety-one degrees of longitude; at the equator, in South America, at Labrador, and in Germany! I found accidentally, during my passage from Philadelphia to Bordeaux, in the memoirs of the Pennsylvanian society, the corresponding observations of Mr. Ellicott (latitude thirty degrees, forty-two minutes;) and, upon my return from Naples to Berlin, I read the account of the Moravian missionaries among the Esquimaux, in the library of Göttingen. Several philosophers had already discussed at this period the coincidence of the observation in the north with those at Cumana, which M. Bonpland and I had published in 1800.
“The following is a succinct enumeration of facts. First, the fiery meteors were seen in the east, and the east-north-east, to forty degrees of elevation, from two to six hours at Cumana, (latitude ten degrees, twenty-seven minutes, fifty-two seconds, longitude sixty-six degrees, thirty minutes;) at Porto Cabello, (latitude ten degrees, six minutes, fifty-two seconds, longitude sixty-seven degrees, five minutes;) and on the frontiers of Brazil, near the equator, in the longitude of seventy degrees west of the meridian of Paris. Secondly, in French Guiana, (latitude four degrees, fifty-six minutes, longitude fifty-four degrees, thirty-five minutes,) the northern part of the sky was seen all on fire. Innumerable falling stars traversed the heavens during an hour and a half, and diffused so vivid a light, that those meteors might be compared to the blazing sheaves shot out from fire-works. Thirdly, Mr. Ellicott, an astronomer in the United States, having terminated his trigonometric operations for the rectification of the limits on the Ohio, being, on the twelfth of November, in the gulf of Florida, in the latitude of twenty-five degrees, and longitude eighty-one degrees, fifty minutes, saw, in all parts of the sky, ‘as many meteors as stars, moving in all directions: some appeared to fall perpendicularly; and it was expected every minute that they would drop into the vessel.’ The same phenomenon was perceived upon the American continent as far as the latitude of thirty degrees, forty-two minutes. Fourthly, in Labrador, at Nain (latitude fifty-six degrees, fifty-five minutes) and Hoffenthal (latitude fifty-eight degrees, four minutes,) and in Greenland, at Lichtenau (latitude sixty-one degrees, five minutes) and New Herrnhutt, (latitude sixty-four degrees, fourteen minutes, longitude fifty-two degrees, twenty minutes,) the Esquimaux were frightened at the enormous quantity of bolides which fell during twilight toward all points of the firmament, some of them being a foot broad. Fifthly, in Germany, M. Zeissing, vicar of Itterstadt, near Weimar, (latitude fifty degrees, fifty-nine minutes, longitude nine degrees, one minute east,) perceived, on the twelfth of November, between the hours of six and seven in the morning, when it was half after two at Cumana, some falling stars, which shed a very white light. Soon after, toward the south and south-west, luminous rays appeared from four to six feet long: they were reddish, and resembled the luminous track of a sky-rocket. During the morning twilight, between the hours of seven and eight, the south-west part of the sky was seen, from time to time, strongly illuminated by white lightning, which ran in serpentine lines along the horizon. At night the cold increased, and the barometer rose.
“The distance from Weimar to the Rio Negro, is eighteen hundred sea leagues; and from Rio Negro to Herrnhutt, in Greenland, thirteen hundred leagues. Admitting that the same fiery meteors were seen at points so distant from each other, we must also admit, that their hight was at least four hundred and eleven leagues. Near Weimar, the appearance like sky-rockets was seen in the south and south-east; at Cumana, in the east and in the east-north-east. We may therefore conclude, that numberless aerolites must have fallen into the sea, between Africa and South America, to the west of the Cape Verde islands. But, since the direction of the bolides was not the same at Labrador and at Cumana, why were they not perceived in the latter place toward the north, as at Cayenne? I am inclined to think, that the Chayma Indians of Cumana did not see the same bolides as the Portuguese in Brazil, and the missionaries in Labrador; but, at the same time, it can not be doubted, and this fact appears to me very remarkable, that in the new world, between the meridians of forty-six degrees and eighty-two degrees, between the equator and sixty-four degrees north, at the same hour, an immense number of bolides and falling stars were perceived; and that those meteors had everywhere the same brilliancy, throughout a space of nine hundred and twenty-one thousand square leagues.
“The scientific men who have lately made such laborious researches on falling stars and their parallaxes, consider them as meteors belonging to the furthest limits of our atmosphere, between the region of the =aurora borealis= and that of the lightest clouds. Some have been seen, which had not more than fourteen thousand toises, or about five leagues of elevation. The highest do not appear to exceed thirty leagues. They are often more than a hundred feet in diameter; and their swiftness is such, that they dart, in a few seconds, over a space of two leagues. Some of these have been measured, the direction of which was almost perpendicularly upward, or forming an angle of fifty degrees with the vertical line. This extremely remarkable circumstance has led to the conclusion, that falling stars are aerolites, which, after having hovered about a long time in space, take fire on entering accidentally into our atmosphere, and fall toward the earth.