COS 



268 



COT 



Cossae. ceeding eastward plundered and laid waste the Russian 

 — ~y~ m ~ r territories on the Volga ; and embarking on the Caspian, 

 made themselves formidable by their piracies to all the 

 surrounding nations. The Tzar Ivan II. enraged at 

 • their depredations, assembled a considerable army to 

 punish their audacity, which so terrified the robbers 

 that they soon dispersed and fled into the neighbouring 

 regions. A body of about 7000, however, still kept to- 

 gether under their Ataman Yermak, and advancing 

 along the river Kama towards Permia ascended the 

 Ural mountains. Immense wildernesses, and ferocious 

 tribes before unknown to Europeans, now presented 

 themselves, and would have stopt the progress of a less 

 adventurous spirit than that of Yermak. But animated 

 with the idea of founding a new and extensive empire, 

 he descended eastward with his resolute companions, 

 defeated the Tartar Khan, and passed the Tobol, the 

 Irtish, and the Oby, subjugating in his victorious career 

 the Tartars, Voguies, and Ostiaks. His little army, 

 however, was soon diminished by battles and fatigue ; 

 and unable, with such scanty means, to accomplish his 

 object by the establishment of a new kingdom, or to 

 keep in obedience so many conquered nations, made 

 over his conquests in 1581, to the Tzar Ivan, who nobly 

 rewarded him for his magnanimity. But Yermak did 

 not long enjoy his good fortune. ' He died about four 

 years after. The discoveries and conquests, however, 

 which he had so successfully begun were vigorously 

 prosecuted by the Emperor, who sent thither reinforce- 

 ments of Don Cossacks for that purpose, and who soon 

 saw his dominions extend to the eastern ocean and the 

 mountains of China. The Cossacks remained in the 

 country as a militia, and many of them married with 

 the natives. Their present number is said to exceed 

 100,000, but of those only 14,000 do military duty, the 

 rest are engaged in various trades. See Siberia. 



The whole number of the Cossack male population 

 in the Russian dominions is reckoned at half a million ; 

 and of these about 200,000 are liable to be called on for 

 government service of one description or other. See 

 Clarke's Travels, vol. i. p. 227, &c. ; Pallas' Travels in 

 Russia, vol. i. p. 468, and vol. ii. p. 330 ; Tooke's View 

 of the Russian Empire, vol. i. p. 390; Coxe's Travels, 

 vol. ii. p. 275 ; Plescheef's Survey of the Russian Empire, 

 p. 3 i 8; Chantreaux's Travels, vol. ii. ; Hanway's Travels, 

 vol. i. p. 97 ; Storch Tableau de V Empire de Russie, 

 vol. i. p. 25 ; and Campenhausen's Travels, p. 34, in 

 Philips's Collection, vol. viii. (p) 



COSSAE is a term applied to a species of cot- 

 Ion cloth, like most others originally imported from 

 India, and differs so very little from calico in almost 

 any particular, as to require very little description to 

 those who' have read that article. The cossae is gene- 

 rally finer than the calico, and like it, is chiefly used for 

 the purpose of printing. It is rather lighter in the fa- 

 bric, forming a kind of intermediate texture between 

 that and the jacconott They are most commonly wo- 

 ven in 1000, 1100, or 1200 reeds of the Scottish mea- 

 sure, or from 32 to 40 of the Lancashire measure. The 

 breadth is generally given out by those who expose them 

 to sale, as -Jths of a yard, which is equivalent to 33^ 

 inches ; but from the prevalent practice of rendering 

 goods apparently cheap by deterioration of quality in al- 

 most every particular, they very frequently do not ex- 

 ceed 28 or 29 inches of actual measure. About No. 44 

 or 46 may be considered as nearly the average number 

 of warp allotted to an 1100 reed. When it is found 

 difficult to procure weavers to undertake these narrow 



goods, which is always the case when work is plentiful, 

 the manufacturers are obliged to have them woven 

 double the breadth, and to leave two intervals of the , 

 reed vacant in the middle to mark the division. These 

 -are afterwards cut asunder into two separate webs ; and 

 as one side of each piece will be deficient in what is 

 termed the selvage, this deficiency is afterwards sup- 

 plied by a slight sewing with the common needle. 

 Although these goods are in general rather superior in 

 point of quality to the narrow ones, from being general- 

 ly better woven than the others, which must often be 

 entrusted to unexperienced boys, a very general preju- 

 dice prevails against them ; and the merchant always 

 complains, that while a piece of the narrow goods with 

 the double selvage remains on hand, he cannot dispose of 

 them. Whether this arises from a jealousy, that the 

 one side has been damaged and cut off, it is impossible 

 to say, but the fact is certain. When cossae muslins are 

 well fabricated and printed, they form an elegant and 

 showy part of female attire, at a very cheap price, that 

 of the cloth before printing seldom exceeding in whole- 

 sale quantities one shilling per yard. From this cir- 

 cumstance they are very saleable ; and when the ge- 

 neral muslin trade is even tolerably good, it is hardly 

 possible to procure a sufficient number of weavers to 

 supply nearly the demand. Capitalists, therefore, fre- 

 quently take the advantage of occasional stagnations of 

 the other branches to stock themselves largely at cheap 

 rates, (j. d.) 



COSSIGNEA, a genus of plants of the class Hexan- 

 dria, and order Monogynia. See Botany, p. 183. 



COSTUS, a genus of plants of the class Monandria, 

 and order Monogynia. See Botany, p. 82. 



COTE-d'Or, the name of one of the departments of 

 France, formed out of part of Burgundy. It is bound- 

 ed on the north by the department of the Aube, on 

 the north-east by that of the Upper Maine, on the south- 

 east by those of the Upper Saone and the Jura, on the 

 south by that of the Saone and Loire, and on the west 

 by those of the Nievre and the Yonne. 



The soil of this department is in general bad, and is 

 impoverished with weeds; but the rich plains in the 

 district of Dijon produce plentiful crops of corn and 

 hay. The principal products of the department are wine 

 and iron. The famous Burgundy wine is produced 

 from the chain of hills called the Golden Coast, on ac- 

 count of the profit which is drawn from this source. 

 In the year 1 80b', no fewer than 322,842 pipes were 

 made in the department. 



The extent of the Cote-d'Or is 876,956 hectares, of 

 which 207,600 are covered with forests. The annual 

 contribution in taxes is 3,905,657 livres, and the popu- 

 lation is 347,842 souls. The principal rivers are the 

 Seine, the Saone, the Ouche, the Tille, &c. and the 

 chief towns are Dijon, Chatillon, Semur, Beaune, Aux- 

 onne, and Nuits. (w) 



COTES, Roger, a celebrated mathematician, was born 

 at Burbage in Leicestershire, on the 10th of July 1682, 

 and was the son of the Rev. Robert Cotes, who was rec- 

 tor of that place. At the early age of eleven years, when 

 he was receiving his education at the school of Leices- 

 ter, he exhibited an ardent passion for geometry, which 

 was fostered by his uncle Dr John Smith, who took 

 young Cotes under his own roof, and anxiously superin- 

 tended his mathematical studies. After having acqui- 

 red at Leicester the elements both of classical and ma- 

 thematical learning, he was sent to St Paul's school in 

 London, where he made rapid progress in classical at* 



Cossae 



Cotes. 



