Calcutta.] 



ORIENTAL COMMERCE. 



299 



should be chosen in flakes of a bright pink colour, and of a smell somewhat 

 resembling tobacco ; it gives a deep saffron tincture to rectified spirits of wine, 

 and to water a paler yellow. That which is in powder, dark coloured, or 

 oily, should be rejected. For freight, 14 Cwt. are allowed to a ton. 



Saltpetiie, {Shorn, Hind., Yavac Shorn, San.) or Nitre, is a salt 

 prepared in various parts of India, but more particularly in the pro- 

 vince of Bahar, likewise in Persia, China, and in the southern parts of 

 Europe. We have had no account of the manner in which it is prepared 

 in the East Indies, no person on the spot having taken particular notice of 

 the manufacture. The general account is, that it is obtained from the soil 

 of certain districts, which are called saltpetre grounds, where the soil is 

 very cold, barren, and unhealthy. The salt is there ready formed by nature. 

 It is only necessary to gather large quantities of the earth, and to put it 

 into a cavity, through which a great quantity of water is poured, which 

 dissolves and brings away the salt which it contains. The brine is evapo- 

 rated by boiling, and when cold, affords nitre by crystallisation. The salt 

 thus obtained, is again dissolved, boiled, and scummed ; and when it is 

 cooled, after sufficient evaporation, the brine yields the saltpetre of com- 

 merce. For freight, 20 Cwt. are allowed to the ton. 



Silk, raw, is a very soft, fine, bright thread, the work of an insect 

 called homhyv, common in some parts of the East Indies, Persia, China, 

 and in the southern parts of Europe. 



The silkworm is a species of caterpillar, of which there are several 

 varieties, and, like all others of the same class, undergoes a variety of 

 changes. It is produced from a yellowish coloured egg, about the size of 

 a small pin-head, which has been laid by a kind of greyish coloured moth. 

 These eggs are hatched by putting them into the sun for a few days. When 

 the animal is first protruded from the egg, it is a small active black worm ; 

 when it has attained its full growth, it is from 1] to l \ inch long, and about 

 half an inch in circumference, of a milky or pearl colour. The body is 

 divided into seven rings, to each of which are joined two very short feet; it 

 then begins forming the cocoon by winding the silk, which it draws from 

 its bowels round itself into an oblong roundish ball. During this operation 

 it gradually loses the appearance of a worm ; its length is much contracted, 

 and its thickness augmented. By the time the web is finished, it is found 

 to be transformed into an oblong round ball, covered with a smooth shelly 

 skin, and appears to be dead. In this state it remains for several days, 

 entirely motionless in the heart of the cocoon ; after which it bursts, like an 

 egg hatching, and from that comes forth a heavy dull looking moth with 

 wings, but these wings it never uses for flying ; it only crawls slowly about 



