396 MR. C. O^NEILL^S EXPERIMENTS AND 



Eight other samples were most kindly obtained for me 

 by the late G. Mosley, Esq., who was much interested in 

 my experiments : in a note accompanying them, he says, 

 " Their origin may be depended upon ; they are direct from 

 the first-hand brokers to my friend, who is a selling 

 broker." They are further marked with the names of the 

 vessels in which they were imported, and are, I believe, 

 entitled to equal confidence with the preceding eight sam- 

 ples. The following is a list of Mr. Mosley's samples : — 



March 28, 1863. 

 Sea Island, good quality 54<?. per lb. 



Pernambuco „ »^ 23 „ 



Maranham, good middling 



Egyptian, fair 22 „ 



Benguela (Portuguese Africa) 



New Orleans, good middling 22^ „ 



Surat Dhallera, " fair, of very good character " lyf „ 



Surat Comptah, middling 15 „ 



I am indebted to W. H. Heys, Esq., for a small sample 

 of Queensland cotton, making seventeen samples in all — of 

 which twelve are of different origin, and five duplicates 

 but probably grown at different times or under different 

 circumstances. 



Length of the Hairs. — One of the distinguishing marks 

 of various samples of cotton is the different lengths of the 

 hairs or staple. I have determined the lengths of at least 

 twenty hairs of each of the samples of cotton, and have 

 given the particulars of each measurement ; but, as I be- 

 lieve these are the first measurements of the fibre ever 

 made upon the individual fibres, it is necessary to allude to 

 the method employed. Many writers have given lengths 

 of the fibres of various qualities of cotton ; and the method 

 generally employed is to draw out a tuft of the cotton 

 repeatedly between the fingers until the hairs are laid pa- 

 rallel, or nearly so, and then to measure the length of the 

 tuft. This is, I believe, the mercantile test for the length 



