COTTON-WOOL. 



159 



annual inundation, the tract of land applicable to its Mr. Tucker's 



Paper, 



cultivation is not extensive.* This variety, which is 

 also called by the natives Desy (of the country), 

 would seem to be, as the name imports, the ndi- 

 genous cotton of Bengal, producing those unri- 

 valled fabrics, which have been known and highly 

 valued in Europe from the earliest period of au- 

 thentic history. 



7. Other varieties (the Bogha kupas, &c.) are 

 found in Bengal Proper, and are used in its do- 

 mestic manufactures ; but the cotton which is 

 exported to Europe and China from Bombay and 

 Calcutta, under the denomination of Surat and 

 BengaLf is produced chiefly in the tract of country 



lying 



* Many years ago I resided in this part of the country, and 

 was induced, from the great superiority of the Bairati kupas, 

 to send the seed, with a model of the ckurker, to my native 

 island (Bermuda), but the cultivation of cotton was not prose- 

 cuted in that island. The fibre of the Bairaii is extremely fine, 

 silky, and strong, but the staple is very short, and the wool 

 adheres most tenaciously to the seed. I have in my possession 

 a specimen of the thread, which has been above forty years in 

 this country, and is apparently still perfect. 



+ The cotton exported from Calcutta as Bengal, bears a great 

 variety of names on the spot (Jalson, Kineb, Banda, Cuchaura, 

 &c.) derived from the place of growth or the principal marts to 

 which it is brought for sale ; but although the quality is very 

 different, owing to a difference in soil, culture, and manage- 

 ment, the cotton is all, I believe, of that description which Dr. 

 Hamilton Buchanan designates hill cotton. The cotton of Surat 

 differs from it only in consequence of the difference in local 

 circumstances. 



