THE TANKS AND TANK SHOOTING 



the flow of water. Some of these enormous tanks have 

 two, three, four, or five of these sluices and culverts 

 discharging their waters into various channels meandering 

 for miles through the country. Not a drop of water was 

 wasted. Every tank, big or little, sent its surplus water, 

 either from its overflow, or from the paddy fields served 

 by its channels, into another tank, and another and another, 

 and so on. Some of the big tanks, damming up rivers, 

 served as our modern " compensation reservoirs " ; that is, 

 they stored up the water of that river and discharged it 

 along the river-course, keeping it at a constant flow, and 

 from the river-course the water would be taken off to the 

 paddy fields by minor channels. Not satisfied with mere 

 jungle " drains" as sources of supply, some of the large 

 tanks were given a perennial supply by boldly damming 

 up a big river, 10, 20, 30, or even 50 miles away, and 

 turning its whole stream down an excavated canal cut 

 from the river to the tank. These vast remains are to 

 be seen all over the country ; notably the great Elahera 

 Canal, starting from a point on the Ambanganga, where, 

 to this day, the remains of the stupendous stone dam are 

 to be seen, and flowing thence to the great Minneriya 

 Tank, overflowing from there to the equally large Kaudulu 

 Tank, and past that to the equally great Tank of Kantalay, 

 a total distance of 54 miles ! 



Another vast scheme is the enormous Kalawewu 

 (wewa = tank) damming up the Kala Oya in the North 

 Central Province. Thence a huge canal runs a total 

 distance of over 50 miles to supply the smaller tanks 

 situated in and near the great ancient city of Anuradha- 

 pura. The foregoing are only two out of many such 

 vast schemes, but where these big tanks, covering an 

 area of 2000 to 5000 acres, exist in tens, the medium- 



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