COTOPAXI COTTON. 



479 



rule, under the name Triasolin. The sonnet to the 

 princess Urania was composed by Cotin ; and he en- 

 gaged in a dispute respecting this poem with Me'n- 

 age, in the presence of a select society, in which the 

 disputants used the same kind of language which Mo- 

 liere places in the mouths of Trissotiu and Vadius. 

 Cotin died, in 1682. His (Euvres Melees appeared 

 in 1659, at Paris, and his (Euvres Galantes. in 2 vols., 

 in 1(365. 



COTOPAXI ; tlie most remarkable volcanic moun- 

 tain of the Andes, in Quito ; 35 miles S. S. E. of 

 Quito, N. N. E. of Chimborazo ; lat. about 40' S. 

 It is the most beautiful of the colossal summits of 

 the Andes. It is a perfect cone, which, being cover- 

 ed with an enormous layer of snow, shines with daz- 

 zling splendour at the setting of the sun, and stands 

 fortli in bold relief from the azure heavens. This 

 covering of snow conceals from the eye of the observer 

 tlie smallest inequalities of the ground. No point or 

 mass of rock penetrates the coating of snow and ice, or 

 breaks the exact regularity of tlie conical figure. The 

 crater is surrounded by a small circular wall, which, 

 when viewed through a telescope, appears like a para- 

 pet. Its height above the sea is 18,898 feet. It is the 

 most tremendous volcano in Quito, and its explosions 

 have been most disastrous, spreading destruction over 

 the surrounding plains. Remarkable eruptions took 

 place in 1698, 173S, 1742, 1744, 1766, and 1768 ; and 

 one in 1893. In 1698, the eruption destroyed the city 

 of Tacunga, with three-fourths of its inhabitants, and 

 other settlements. In 1738, the flames rose nearly 

 3000 feet above the brink of the crater ; and in 1744, 

 its roarings were heard as far as Honda, on the Mag- 

 dalena, 600 miles distant. With respect to the explo- 

 sion of 1803, Humboldt observes, " At the port of Gu- 

 ayaquil, 52 leagues distant, in a straight line, from the 

 crater, we heard, day and night, the noise of this vol- 

 cano, like continued discharges of a battery ; and we 

 distinguished these tremendous sounds even on the 

 Pacilic ocean.'" In viewing this volcano, everything 

 contributes to give it a most majestic and awful cha- 

 racter. The pyramidal summits of Ilinissa ; tlie snowy 

 ridges of the other mountains ; the singular regu- 

 larity of the inferior line of snow, and the luxuriance 

 of the great plains, offer an unparalleled assemblage 

 of the grand and picturesque features of nature. 

 Humboldt found it difficult to ascend the mountain, 

 in 1802, as far as the limit of perpetual snow, and 

 he pronounces it impossible, by any human art to 

 reach the summit. 



COTTA, J. G., 'baron of Cottenberg ; an eminent 

 bookseller of Germany, was born at Stuttgart in 

 1764. In his youth he studied theology, and was, for 

 some time, a pnvate instructor. In 1798, he esta- 

 blished, in connexion with some other persons, the 

 Allgemeine Zeitung which soon became, through his 

 efforts, tlie best political paper of Germany. Mr 

 Cotta then became a publisher of books ; and his es- 

 tablishment under the firm of J. G. Cotta? sche Buch- 

 handlung, was distinguished, not like those of his 

 contemporaries, Crapele, and some others for the 

 peculiar beauty and correctness of the publications 

 which proceeded from it, but for the great number, 

 among which have been many of the best works of 

 German literature. But the circumstance which 

 probably rendered Mr Cotta's press unique, was tlie 

 number of periodicals tliat he succeeded in establish- 

 ing, which embraced a very extensive circle of scien- 

 tific and literary subjects. His Allgemeine Zeitung 

 is a daily political paper ; Das Morgen-Blatt is a 

 daily paper, principally devoted to entertaining mat- 

 ter ; Das Kunst- lilatt treats of the i.ne arts ; Das 

 Ausland gives information only respecting foreign 

 countries ; Das Inland is chiefly for Bavaria. ; Das 

 Polytechnische Journal is devoted to the useful arts > 



Die Politischen Annalen is made up of long political 

 treatises and documents; Das Liter atur-Blatt is a 

 daily paper, containing short critiques, .somewhat 

 similar to the London Literary (layette, but its con- 

 tents are more valuable. All these different publi- 

 cations are carried on in Stuttgard, Tuebingen, and 

 Augsburg. Some years before his death, Mr Cotta 

 purchased the barony of Cottenberg, in the kingdom 

 of Wuertemberg, whereby lie became entitled to a 

 seat in the chamber of the nobles < f that state, where 

 he showed himself disposed to liberal sentiments. 

 His Allgemeine Zeitung has likewise this character, 

 as much as is possible in a country in which the con- 

 ductor has been obliged already, three times, to 

 change the place of its publication, in order to evade 

 a strrct censorship. Mr Cotta's wealth was great, 

 and he applied it liberally in procuring valuable con- 

 tributions to the various journals published by him. 

 He died on the 29th December, 1832. 



COTTIN, SOPHIE RISTAUD, better known by the 

 name of madame Cottin, tlie author of several novels 

 and works of entertainment, was born in 1773, at 

 Tonneins, in the department of Lot and Garonne, 

 married, at the age of seventeen, a banker at Bour- 

 deaux, and went soon after to Paris, where, in a fesv 

 years, she lost her husband. To relieve her sorrow, 

 she gave herself up to intellectual pursuits. To di- 

 vert her thoughts, she wrote down the fancies and 

 reflections that strongly occupied her active mind, 

 without supposing that they would be of interest or 

 value beyond the circle of her immediate friends. In 

 the ease with which she expressed her thoughts, she 

 discovered a talent, which even those most intimate 

 with her had not hitherto appreciated. Her first 

 attempts were small poems, and a history of 200 

 pages. One of her friends having occasion for fifty 

 iouis-d'ors, in order to leave France, from which he 

 was banished, madame Cottin, to assist the unfortu- 

 nate man, published her Claire d'All>e, but kept her 

 name a secret. The necessity which she felt of 

 pouring out her feelings, determined her to appear 

 again as an authoress, and she produced Malvina, 

 Amelie de Mansfield, and Elizabeth, or the Exiles of 

 Siberia. Tlie eloquence and fervour with which she 

 expresses the most secret feelings of the heart have 

 been much admired, especially by her own sex. Her 

 circumstances enabled her to devote tlie profits of 

 her works to benevolent objects. A painful disorder 

 prevented her from finishing a religious work which 

 she had begun, and another on education. The 

 latter was the only one of her works for which she 

 was anxious to gain a favourable reception with the 

 public ; for, singular as it may seem, she disap- 

 proved, in general, of women's appearing as authors. 

 She died, after three months' suffering, August 25, 

 1807. Her works are contained in the collection 

 (Euvres completes de Madame Cottin, Paris, 1806. 



COTTON is a soft, vegetable down, which is con- 

 tained in the seed-vessels, and envelopes the seeds, of 

 the cotton plant (gossypium Aerbaceum), which is cul- 

 tivated in tlie East and West Indies, North and South 

 America, and Egypt ; in fact, in most parts of the 

 world which possess a sufficiently warm climate. It is 

 an annual plant. It grows to a considerable height, 

 and has leaves of a bright green colour, marked with 

 brownish veins, and each divided into five lobes. The 

 flowers have only one petal in five segments, with a 

 short tube, and are of a pale-yellow colour, with five 

 red spots at the bottom. The cotton-pods are of 

 somewhat triangular shape, and have each three 

 cells. These, when ripe, burst open, jind disclose 

 their snow-white or yellowish contents, in the midst 

 of which are contained the seeds, in shape somewhat 

 resembling those of grapes. Tlie fibres of cotton are 

 extremely tine, delicate, and flexile. When examined 



