OBSERVATIONS ON IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA. 155 



ill tlie Himalayas whilst the volume of water varies, it is always 

 considerable, the lowest discharge being in April, before the 

 snows commence to melt: in tlie case of rivers whose source is 

 the hills in the interior of India the discharge is greatly 

 restricted from November to March, and during April, May 

 and June, many rivers are almost dry, a large river, the 

 ■Mahanuddy, for instance, which is nearly two miles wide in an 

 ordinary tlood, becoming fordable from April to June, and being 

 then only a few hundred feet in width. 



In Bengal proper, rivers are very numerous and the meeting 

 place of the community, especially the women, who carry water 

 from them for domestic use and take advantage of the 

 opportunity to chatter with their neighbours. They are also 

 much resorted to, by both sexes, for bathing purposes, a pastime 

 wiiich cannot always be indulged in in safety, many of the 

 rivers abounding in alligators, who are given to devouring 

 children and do not disdain adults when children are not to be 

 bad. I have shot several alligators and found inside them 

 bangles and other feminine ornaments, indicating that they had 

 quite their share of female flesh. One l iver in Orissa is known 

 as the Kimeria-Kimer, being the Ooriya term for alhgator. In 

 that river bathing places are frequently fenced roun.l with 

 bamboos, a practice which I notice has been copied at 

 Folkestone, iron bars taking the place of bamboos, but i have 

 not heard of alligators appearing at that place. 



I now tarn to the great irrigation systems of India on which, 

 as I have previously mentioned, nearly 30 millions sterling 

 have been expended. The water is in nearly every case 

 obtained from some oreat river, and the usual course is to 

 build a wall — technically known as a weir — across the river, so 

 •as to raise the water and keep it permanently raised, some 

 10 or 12 feet above the river bed. The designing and building 

 of these weirs affords full scope for the engineering abilities of 

 the staff of engineers employed by the Government of India 

 in the Irrigation Branch of the Public Works Department. 

 Essentially, a weir comprises the wall mentioned, which is 

 usually built on wells, the foundation being generally sand, and 

 slopes of heavy stone, in front and behind. Work is carried on 

 when the rivers are at their lowest, say from November to 

 May, so that the season of heavy floods is escaped. I am not 

 going to inflict on you any technical engineering details, but I 

 may perhaps say that there are occasionally incidents con- 

 nected with the construction of these large works, which cause 

 anxious moments to the resident staff I was at one time 



