pitch?

It could mean a current of molten tar, or it could mean an especially smooth fastball, or it could mean a glib sales presentation, or ... you get the idea. A little context, please.

Here is the text
Incontinently he was flying head over heels through the air at the rate of dozens of miles
a minute. In spite of the innumerable circles he was describing per second, he thought;
for thought is wonderful--sometimes as sluggish as flowing pitch, sometimes as
instantaneous as light. He thought in a second, and willed. "Let me come down safe and
sound. Wh

It's a current of molten tar.

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/pitch

Thank you.