1833.] The Pan-chaké or Native Water-miil; 359> 
I].—Description of the Pan-chakit or Native Water-mill. 
On the mountain streams and rivers in the Northern Dodd, the 
Natives use a water-mill for grinding corn, which for its simplicity is 
well deserving attention, as it might be applied in all countries, where 
a fall of water can be commanded, and where a want of efficient 
workmen renders the complicated and expensive species of mill ma- 
chinery, generally used, a matter of difficulty to manage or keep in 
repair. In the hands of the Natives and with the rude means that they 
have by them, it may be perhaps considered the only sort of mill that 
could be turned to any account, both from the absence of any compli- 
cation in its parts, and from the simplicity of its construction, render- 
ing it in any man’s power for a trifling outlay, either to fix his mill 
at any point that may suit him, or to remove it at pleasure ; the only 
weighty parts about it being the mill-stones, which however by run- 
ning a stick through them, and yoking a bullock or pair of bullocks 
to them, may in the neighbourhood of roads or common tracks be also 
removed with as little difficulty or expense as the rest of the machinery. 
A horizontal water-wheel with fluats placed obliquely so as to receive 
a stream of water from a shoot or funnel, the said float-boards being 
fixed in a vertical axle passing through the lower mill-stone, and held 
to the upper one by a short iron bar at right angles, causing it to 
revolve with the water-wheel ;—the axle itself having a pivot working 
on a piece of the hardest stone that can be procured from the shingle 
near at hand :—this with a thatched roof over it, and the expense and 
trouble of digging a cut so as to take advantage of a fall of water,—are 
the only articles required in this very simple mill. The plan is so ob- 
viously good, not only for the means gained, but also from the simpli- 
city rendering the whole almost independent of repair, and so intelli- 
gible in its parts as to come within the comprehension of the simplest 
understanding, that it has been adopted generally in all the canals in 
the Delhi district, as well as in those of the Dodd ; and with such suc- 
cess, that the introduction of such mills, wherever sufficient fall 
is provided, is as much an object, on account of the profit arising to 
the canal returns, as from the accommodation and convenience offered 
to the community, in providing the means for grinding corn. 
On reference to the accompanying plate, it will be seen that there 
is only one motion, and that supposing the materials are good, the 
permanency of the machinery depends entirely on the lower pivot. It 
will also be evident that there is not a part of the whole machinery that 
could not be repaired and put in perfect order by the commonestvillage 
