The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-24 00:00:00

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EXHIBITION OF THE
adiliy. GOLDEN EAG:
at Burlington Gallery, 191, Picz
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THE SUN.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 24, 1862.

The great domestic topic is Cotton. The thou-
sands
of pounds flowing in to the Relief Funds '1
from all sources at home, and from even the
remotest colonies, which thus still indicate their
warm family attachment, are proofs of this. The
meetings of the Cotton Supply Association, and
the efforts made in India, all show how English-
men, everywhere, are eager to contribute their
money, or their skill to meeting the pressure of
the Cotton famine. But, if we are not mistaken,
Mr. HARBEN, with his new product, which we
shall take the liberty to call SEA COTTON,
Will prove by far the most munificent
contributor of all. His name having become
public we felt it our duty, as journalists, in re-
ference to what strikes us as a discovery of such
promising importance, to examine, if permitted, for
ourselves ; and we are bound to acknowledge the
frank courtesy with which our wishes were met.
Mr. HARBEN appears, in fact, not only to have
nothing to cot ceal, but to wish the utmost publicity
for his discovery, for the express reason that it
may be examined by thousands, instead of a few,
that thus every difficulty may become known and
met ; and that at the earliest possible period the
discovery may be applied to commercial purposes.
No one of course would prophecy in a case like
this. We must wait the results of actual trial on a
large scale. But we must confess that while our
apprehensions and hopes balanced each other be-
fore, our hopes are now completely triumphant.
We had thought previously of many difficulties
and objections, but all we could think of are
gone, and gone completely. We cannot, of course,
insure that others may not arise.

Some of the sea grass—Zostera Marina—is now
before us:, We have examined it many ways, our

readers on the coast may follow our example, and
if they do, they will find it next to impossible to
believe that such a product will not be promptly
utilized. The plant will be easily recognised where
it grows, ae when washed up by the water it has
nothing common in appearance with other sea-
weeds, being simply very long blades of grass about
a quarter of an inch wide. If taken while damp,
and the greenish cuticle carefully broken without
pulling so strongly as to break the whole leaf, and
if then the broken parts be gently drawn asunder, a
beautiful warp of dei icate, white, strong, filaments
will appear, which ma be drawn out to a consider.
able length without breaking. If one end be let go,
their natural elasticity twists them into one fine
thread. One fact is very remarkable. Examining
a piece by a powerful microscope, it appeared
that the visible outer skin was but
a flattened tube, ity. which the filaMents lay
somewhat loosely. IVe called to mention this to
the discoverer, but found we had been long antici-
pated by him. He in oved in a minute the truth
of the microscopic ap,pearance, by taking a piece
of fresh weed, breall'aig it in two places half an
inch apart, and drascitig out the filaments, when
the half inch of gret ni left in the middle, would
slide up and down on the filaments with the
utmost ease, like a tube on a number of strings
inclosed within it. It would thus seem that these
beautiful filaments ) nay be as long as the blade of
the grass itself, vhieh extends frequently to
many feet.
We find that thei 13 is no difference of opinion—
indeed, there can be, none—respecting the beauty,
fineness, and streng tit of this singular fibre. The
wonder seems to be rasther how it could escape ob-