150 



ORIENTAL COMMERCE. 



{Bombay. 



Necklaces, car-rings, and other trinkets are manufactured at Cambay 

 from cornelians, and are an article of trade to Europe ; they should be 

 chosen of pure clear colours, well cut, and free from cracks and flaws. 



Corneh'an stones are sometimes imported in their rough state from 

 Bombay. In ch using them, such as are chipped should be rejected, as those 

 have been tried and refused by the stone-cutters at Cambay. Freight 20 

 Cwt to a ton. 



Cotton Wool is the soft vegetable down which forms the covering or 

 envelope of the seeds of the Goasypium y or cotton plant, which is the sponta- 

 neous production of three parts of the globe, Asia, Africa, and America. 

 Considerable quantities are imported from Surat, Madras, and Bengal, and 

 occasionally from the Islands of Bourbon and Mauritius. 



The cotton from the different quarters of the globe varies considerably 

 in colour and length, strength and fineness of fibre. "White is in general 

 considered of secondary quality. The cotton of the Levant is distinguished 

 by its want of colour, and the chief part of that from North America is 

 also white. Yellow, when not the effect of accidental wetting, or incle- 

 ment season, is indicative of greater fineness. The cotton of the West 

 Indies and of South America is called yellow, but inclines more to cream 

 colour. 



The East India cottons rank in the following order :■ — Bourbon, Surat, 

 Bengal, Madras. 



I. Bourbon is the most even and uniform in quality ; it is of a long 

 silky staple, very clean, and is the most valuable kind imported into Eng- 

 land, except the Sea Island, Georgia. 



II. Of the Surat cottons, the Ahmood is the best ; the fibre is very 

 fine, but not of long staple. The specimens upon which experiments have 

 been made, fully prove, that if such cotton could always be imported, it 

 would command a high price, and meet a ready market. The other places 

 are Baroach, Bownaghur, Surat, Jambooser, Oclasur, Hansoote, &c. 

 Great advantages would be acquired by freeing the cotton of every particle 

 of foulness, as well as every mixture of tinged or inferior staple before it is 

 packed up, leaving nothing to be made up into bales but the purest cotton ; 

 by which the value would be much increased in England, and the freight 

 considerably reduced by the impurities left behind, which are besides not 

 only a great injury to the sale and value of the cotton, but the picking 

 alone, which costs 3d. per lb. in England, could be performed for Id. in 

 India. 



It is impossible to be too attentive to the great object of shipping no 

 cotton but what is perfectly clean ; it should, in fact, be put into that 



