[Illustration: Queen’s Park Hotel, the most popular in Port of Spain, facing the great Savannah] [Illustration: A street in Port of Spain, where one can ride up town on a trolley car built in Philadelphia] Railway lines run east from Port of Spain, and south for thirty-five miles, down the coast of the Gulf of Paria, to Prince’s Town and San Fernando, through sections crowded with East Indian coolies. From San Fernando, a little steamer leaves daily for trips along the coast. The land-locked waters of the Gulf are usually calm and the mountains of Venezuela are seen miles away in an exquisite blue haze. The steamer skirts along a shore bordered by mangrove swamps, to Brighton, and there it stops at the long pier of The Trinidad Lake Asphalt Operating Company, Ltd. Brighton is an active little industrial community, close upon the lake, and the traveler finds himself in the midst of the asphalt industry. Overhead the cable is singing away as it carries along the myriad of great buckets filled with asphalt. Dozens of pretty buildings are the homes of the Company’s employees. White paint and screens and cleanliness are everywhere. The asphalt refinery is at the hilltop, on the border of the lake, which has been described by some as an inferno, a place of heat and vapors. In reality it is a great level area of about 100 acres, with a surface of a dull blue-gray color, with here and there stray pools of water from the showers. [Illustration: The great Savannah, with its wide, tree-bordered lawn, rich in tropical beauty] [Illustration: Model of Trinidad Asphalt Lake, Brighton, Trinidad, British West Indies At the lower right-hand corner of the photograph of the model will be found the village of La Brea, while just above at the edge of the lake is the village of “New Jersey,” where the laborers and their families live. The asphalt refinery and barreling plant are to the left of the village. The office, bungalows of the employees, hotel and clubhouse are located between the refinery and the loading pier. At the extreme left-hand corner of the photograph is the jetty and end of aerial tramway, where vessels dock to be loaded with asphalt.] [Illustration: Part of the Company’s “Quarters” for employees at Trinidad Asphalt Lake] You may walk where you please on the asphalt. It is solid enough to bear your weight. But if you stand in one place you will slowly sink in. The surface bears some resemblance to an asphalt street on a very hot day, though much of the time a fresh breeze blows. [Illustration: A gang of workmen on the lake, digging and loading asphalt. Observe the method of carrying to cars] [Illustration: Another view of the asphalt lake showing workmen at rest during lunch period]