COTTIWAR, or CATTIVAD, a considerable district of Hindustan, in the centre of the Gujerat peninsula, situated between the 21st and 23d degrees of north latitude. The present inhabitants, who are supposed to have been long in possession of the country, are Hindus, but of the sect which pays adoration to the sun. They are named Catties, who originally migrated from the north, along the banks of the Indus, to Cutch, and afterwards proceeded with their
flocks and cattle to the extensive plains of their present country. They are many of them robbers by profession, and the country has hitherto been the scene of constant wars among its petty chiefs; and hence the large influx into this territory of Arabs, who are in great request on account of their valour and martial habits. Since the British have begun to interfere in the affairs of this country, the spirit of anarchy has been somewhat repressed, and the demand for armed retainers among the independent chiefs by whom the country is governed has diminished. The inhabitants are occupied in breeding cattle and horses;
the latter are in great esteem, and are purchased by the British government for the cavalry. A constant intercourse is maintained with Arabia by the Gulf of Cutch. The country contains no towns of any magnitude, but many strongholds, which are the resort of thieves and robbers.
COTTON is a soft vegetable down, the produce of the gossypium or cotton tree, of which there are many varieties. It grows naturally in all the tropical climates of Asia, Africa, and America, whence it has been transplanted, and has become an important article of cultivation in the southern parts of the United States, and to some extent also in Europe. Cotton is distinguished by its colour, and by its strength, length, and fineness of its fibre. White is ge-
nerally considered as characteristic of secondary quality. That which has a yellowish tinge, when not the result of wetting or inclement seasons, is considered as indicating greater fineness. There are in the market many varieties of raw cotton, which principally derive their name from the places whence they are brought. They are usually classed under the denominations of long and short stapled. The best of the first is that brought from the shores of Georgia, but its qualities differ very considerably. The superior samples of Brazil cotton are reckoned among the long stapled. The upland or bowed Georgia cotton forms the largest and best portion of the short stapled class. All the Indian cottons are short stapled.