464 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [September, 1908. 
xpenditure which their provision and maintenance entailed and 
still entail. The history of the endeavours to keep the river 
under control appears to go back a very long way; although there 
is no direct evidence to show the date of construction of the Bir 
Band (vide diagram No. 1), which gicmeg fet sec to have 
been built along the right bank of the Kosi as a protective work, 
that date is certainly several centuries tsck. The Band extends 
for many miles roughly along Longitude 87° East, and to this day 
North-Western Railway, of having been broken from time to time, 
and the frequent gaps in it show that it has suffered considerably 
either at the hands of the Kosi, reve this is just as likely—from 
the ravages of other rivers lyin ng to the west of the Band; no 
waterways appear to have been left ehvongh the Band, and to- day 
r 
ster of the situation. The above remarks are based on the 
assumption that the Bir Band is a river-protection work; there 
are those whe. look on it as a boundary fortification; if this latter 
view is correct, there would assuredly be portions of the Band 
raised above its or dinary level to serve as forts, blockhouses, or 
) 
length of the Band, and it may therefore, I think, be accepted 
areas from riverain depredati 
In recent times, on the left bank of the Kosi, in the Purnea 
of the Bir Band, giving temporary a which, as will be seen 
later, is probably a menace to “future welfare.” At the point at 
which the Kosi enters the Ganges oustanaie trai works 
have been erected by the Bengal and North-Western Railway 
Company ; these are of intr type, and a description of them 
is beyond the scope of this no 
In all the attempts refered to above, perhaps with the 
exception of the modern works at the mouth of the Kosi, which 
lead the river into the Guriges ‘Sai a bridge, no effort appears 
to have been made to provide for suitable emergency or other 
outlets through the embankments; this point is significant, and 
its results will be explained in detail hereafter. 
About eighteen months ago, an officer of the Public Works 
Department was placed te emporarily on special duty to make a fall 
si 
known to the writer, before t thie ilies ool ors out any of 
the considerable amount of field work which a report would have 
necessitated, he reverted to his “aga ge EN and 
the matter has not since been reo reopened, me to time the 
Purnea Local Board has enquired into we suiack, but no ——. 
conten taken, as far as I am aware, to carry into practic 
the many and varied suggestions put forward by those caer oe 
sd Silica ee a Rapa: 

