772 Proposed formation of a Canal for Irrigation [No. 128. 



ness to the purposes for which it is intended, I suppose that my 

 opinion is merely required on the question mooted in the 14th paragraph 

 of Captain Cautley's report, regarding the expediency of diverting 

 any part of the Jumna water from the supply of the existing Canals. 



3. The supply of water in the Dehli Canal has during some months 

 of three several years; (viz. 1836-37, 1837-38, and 1840-41,) fallen 

 considerably short of the demand, and many villages situated near 

 the ends of the Canal branches in the Dehli, Rohtuk, and Hansie 

 districts, have, from this cause, and from the greater consumption 

 of water by those above them, been temporarily deprived of the full 

 means of irrigation they once possessed, nor has the loss been confined 

 to the villages so situated, as it has necessitated vexatious restrictions 

 on the irrigation throughout the whole line of Canals. 



4. Under these circumstances, I consider it my duty (both to Go- 

 vernment, whose revenue settlements have been made with reference 

 to present means of irrigation, and to the Zemindars, whom I have 

 induced and assisted to dig water- courses,) to deprecate any avoidable 

 diminution of the Jumna water. 



5. I am willing to admit that the Doon may probably benefit more 

 from the Kutha Puttur Canal, than the Dehli territory would lose 

 by the abstraction of eighty cubic feet of water per second, and that 

 the whole of the eighty feet so abstracted might not be a dead loss, 

 as some surplus might return via the Satwala and Asun to the Jumna, 

 and a proportion even of that used in irrigation, might, by percolation 

 of the soil, find its way into the natural drains of the country, and 

 eventually return to the parent stream. A deduction may also be 

 claimed for waste by absorption and evaporation, during the transit 

 of the said eighty feet from the Dhoon to the irrigating districts of 

 the Dehli territory. But with respect to the first concession, I sub- 

 mit that the Dehli territory has a prescriptive right to as much of its 

 present means of irrigation as can be maintained, and though I cannot 

 exactly estimate the effects of the latter, I believe that they would be 

 found inconsiderable, and at all events, it is undeniable that some loss 

 would occur, and whether that loss be small or great, the principle 

 remains unaltered. 



6. It may be argued, that the loss of the Dehli territory merely re- 

 sults in that of Government, who have the power of compensation by re- 



