102 CLIMATE AND KESOURCES OF 



Hindoos, finding fuel expensive for cremation, dispose of 

 more of their dead by throwing them into the rivers. 



C (page 54). 



On the occasion of the reading of a paper by W. Taylor, 

 Esq., " On Famines in India, their Remedy and Prevention/' 

 at the room of the Society of Arts, on 18th December, 1873, 

 it was stated in the discussion that followed the reading of 

 the paper, that on the 15th August last the floods were 

 higher than usual over a great part of the country which two 

 months later was, and now is, threatened with famine from 

 drought. This shows how quickly the water ran off and was 

 lost, and the land became dried up. 



D (page 66). 



Captain Thomason, R.E., an officer of great experience, 

 who has been employed for years on irrigational canals, thus 

 writes of reh : " In the interests of irrigation, can there be 

 a more important question to settle than the treatment of the 

 ( reh ' lands, extending year by year throughout our irrigated 

 districts, and rendering our irrigation worse than useless ? " 

 In a note to the above paragraph he says, "Vide Mr. Sherer's 

 report on the Western Jumna Canal districts, submitted to 

 Government in 1856-57, and many other reports; " and adds : 

 ' ' From personal observation I can testify to the rapid extension 

 of < reh > land in the Bareilly district, from 1863 to 1868." 



Captain Thomason recommended subsoil- drainage and deep 

 cultivation as a remedy. The drainage where tiles were used, 

 cost, according to his estimate, 20 Rs. or 2 per acre. 

 50,000 square miles are, according to " Forecast of Expenditure 

 on Canals" (mentioned on page 73), to be secured from liability 

 to drought by irrigation- works, at an expenditure of some 

 20,000,000. If by this it is meant that an area of 50,000 



