158 C. W. 0DL1NG_, ESQ., M.INST.C.E., C.S.I., ON 



of 40,000 miles of canals and distributaries have been con- 

 structed at the expense of the Government of India. 



When a canal has been built, so far from the difficulties 

 being over, my experience has been tliat they are about to 

 commence. After all a canal and its appliances can be carried 

 out with the ordinary difficulties attendant on the construction 

 of a large engineering work. Eivers, large or small, are crossed 

 by weirs or aqueducts, the slope of the canal is kept at that 

 necessary to give the desired velocity to the water, masonry 

 falls or waste weirs being built should the slope of the country 

 exceed that given to the canal, and finally, escapes are provided 

 into which water not required can be discharged. One thing I 

 may perhaps mention, which is, that if there is a weak spot in 

 the works the water will find it out, and that the work, both 

 as regards material and workmanship, must be first class. In 

 common with railways, canals have been of great use to the 

 country in introducing masonry, iron and woodwork, of a class 

 which had never been previously seen in many districts. 

 When the canals were completed the workmen remained and 

 used for other works the skill they had acquired whilst 

 employed on canal construction. 



I will give one concrete example of indirect material 

 advancement consequent on the building of a canal. In 1872 

 I was employed as Eesident Engineer on the construction of 

 what is known as the High Level Canal between Cuttack and 

 Bhadrak. A weir across the Pattia river was one of the works, 

 and large quantities of stone were required — this stone we 

 obtained from an estate known as Sokinda. JSTow in Sokinda, 

 which is in British territory, but at that time in reality ruled 

 by a landholder, a direct descendant of the ancient chiefs, such 

 a thing as a cart was unknown. Pack bullocks were employed 

 for the transport of grain and such commodities as had to be 

 moved. The contractors I employed commenced by importing 

 2,000 carts, and in June, when the working season expired, 

 these carts were not considered worth either moving or storing, 

 and they were sold, to what I may call the aborigines, for what 

 they would fetch. In subsequent years a similar course was 

 followed, and there has been no lack of carts in Sokinda since. 



The canal banks, I may add, are in some cases high, the 

 width is considerable, and the quantity of earth to be moved 

 any distance from 20 to 100 yards and any height up to 20 feet, 

 lai-ge. All this earth is carried on women's heads in baskets, 

 wheel-barrows being unknown, indeed there is a tradition that 

 \^ heel- barrows were once sent out from England for a railway, 



