a 
Vol. IV, No. 9.] . The Kosi River. i s / 485 
[NS.] 
essential, in the interests of the advancement of the inhabitants of 
the Gangetic Plain, that the requisite expenditure should not be 
grad 
Phe cease of the Brahmaputra is, however, still more important 
than that of the Ganges; this river, in its whole length in British 
banks for hours, and sometimes for days, when, by the copying of 
American methods, the obstacles ety cause all the delay described 
can, at small cost, be-done away with. 
In making such hatesivon as those just made, I do not 
intend to criticise the attitude of Government; the records of the 
tours of Sir Lancelot Hare, Lientenant-Governor, E. B. & Assam, 
for the last year, show clearly the sympathy he feels with 
d 
and the wish he invariably sro a for applicants to be patient 
and to give the Government full time for consideration of such an 
important subject, speaks for itself, To rush into the attempted 
adjustment of the complications of nature’s machinery would 
be unwise, and all concerned should clearly recognise that, 
without considerable aalee any attempt to deal with the question 
wholesale would be an unsound, if not a positively dangerous, 
a 
Whatever the changes are which are going on in the ee 
of the ongeray of the Ganges and Brahmaputra, they are 
P ing very slowly, and anything that can be done to improve 
those ahawnela: although it will involve work year by year, may 
be 1 onas labour which, although it may not have a per- 
manent result, will help materially to —_. our own communi- 
cations, and, if continued, those of future erations. 
n Our inquiry into the possibility = ‘tratinitiy ‘these rivers 
there are two final objects which require to be borne in mind : (a) 
the improvement of low water channels; (b) the protection of 
country from floods. It has already been shown that wholesal 
provision of suitable embankments may, t think, for reasons 
alrendy given, be dismissed as a § lan of alleviation ; the 
possible courses open to us are at once narrowed down to—(a) 
dredging ; and @) fe pin twadtion’ of the stream by “ bandals” or 
some: ‘similar method 
Bandals a re screens of mats and bamboos placed across the 
sides of wide ‘aid shallow beds in such a way that a series of such 
sereens breaks the force of the current to the extent of forcing it 
to deposit silt in suitable places, places in which it would other- 
wise not deposit; the current in the middle of a shallow reach 
can ae thus acce ccelerated, and @ deeper oat maintained at lower 
ndals can be made to carry out two main kinds of work— 
(ay B, bank consolidation; and (6) channel as peat: the case of 
