Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1885 — Where We Get the Asphalt. [ARTICLE]

Where We Get the Asphalt.

I never look at an asphalt pavement, says a writer in the Philadelphia Times, oxv roll along over its smooth surface in a carriage wjthont thinking of the curious island and the still more singular place from which the material is procured. In about the center of the island of Trinidad, a dot in the Caribbean Sea, just off the "coast of Venezuela, there is an asphalt lake. It is said to cover about one hundred acres, and is apparently inexhaustible. It is a.black, Bandy substance, and is believed to be crude, rotten petroleum. A singular feature of the substance is that, although about fifty thousand tons are taken out of this lake annually, it constantly fills up so that there is no lessening of the supply. This singular lake of paving material is owned by the Venezuelan Government, but leased to a company in Washington, of which a man named A. L, Barber is President. They have a fleet of schooners running to Trinidad, and have a monopoly of the business. They import vast quantities of the materiaPlaid down on Broad street, beyond Columbia avenue.