1846.] 
THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE. 
511 
SCRIPTA IIISTORICA BLANDORUM, Latine reddita et apparatu critico 
instructa, curante Societate Regia Antiquariorum Septentrionalium, vol. XII. The 
edition first commenced by the Society of the Historical Sagas, recording events 
which happened out of America, (Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland,) particularly 
in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, in the original Icelandic text, with two trans¬ 
lations, one into Latin and another into Danish, thirty-six volumes, has now 
been brought to a completion by the publication of the abovementioned volume, 
(pp. 658 in 8vo.) wherein are contained regesta geographica to the whole work, 
which, for this"large atlas of Sagas, may be considered as tantamount to an old 
northern geographical gazetteer, inasmuch as attention has also been paid to other 
old northern manuscripts of importance in a geographical point of view. Com¬ 
plete, however, it cannot by any means be called, neither as regards Iceland espe¬ 
cially, and other lands in America, whose copious historical sources have in the 
present instance been but partially made use of, nor, also, as regards the European 
countries, without the Scandinavian north, for whose remote history and ancient 
geography the old northern writings contain such important materials; but it is to 
be hoped that the society will in due time take an opportunity of extending its labors 
in that direction also The present volume does, however, contain a number of 
names of places situated without the bounds of Scandinavia, in countries of 
which mention is made in the writings published in the work itself. To the name 
of each place is annexed its Icelandic or Old Danish form, and the position of the 
place is investigated by means of comparison with other historical data and with 
modern geography. 
SOUTH AMERICAN COTTON. 
LETTER FROM Mr. GRAHAM, U. S. CONSUL, BUENOS AYRES, 
On the cotton of Corrientes, a 'province of the Argentine Confedera¬ 
tion,—the mode of cultivating , carding , spinning , weaving , fyc., fyc. 
r} 
Consulate of the United States of America, 
Buenos Ayres, March 17, 1846. 
Sir : I send you herewith a specimen of the cotton of Corrientes, as it is picked 
from the tree. Corrientes is one of the provinces of the Argentine Confederation, 
and is now in rebellion against this Government. It is on the Parana river, be¬ 
tween Entre Rios and Paraguay. I also send you the implements used by the 
Corrientenos for carding and spinning this cotton, and a specimen of the cloth man¬ 
ufactured from it. These were presented to me by Mr. John C. Hayes. Mr. Hayes 
is a native of New York, has lived sixteen years in Corrientes, and is now a resident 
of this city. From him I obtained an account of the manner in which the cotton is 
cultivated. The seed is planted about six feet apart each way ; the tree bears the 
first year, and, in his language, “forever after.” It attains about the size of 
our quince tree, and requires no cultivation except the occasional cutting off the 
top to prevent it from growing too high. At the time for picking, a hide is drawn 
by a horse between the rows, and the cotton picked and thrown into it. The seed 
is picked out by hand. The females then, with a small bow, one of which I send 
you, “ card” or bow the cotton, so as to lay the fibres all in one way, and to remove 
all foreign particles. 
It is then spun with little sticks, one of which I send you, by twirling the stick 
with the fingers and letting it run on the floor whilst the fingers are employed in 
drawing out the cotton. Mrs. Hayes, who is a native of Corrientes, showed me 
the process of carding and spinning, with the implements 1 send you. The raw 
cotton around the stick was prepared with the bow, and the thread spun by her. 
The weaving is performed in a manner as primitive as the spinning. They drive 
