168 C. W. ODLING, ESQ., M.INST.C.E., C.S.I., ON 



the same as the Chenab canal. But there is one canal, not in India, 

 which outstrips all these, viz., a canal in Egypt, which in times of 

 its maximum discharge carries as much, I believe, as 30,000 cubic 

 feet a second — more than double what the Thames carries in its 

 maximum flood. 



I think that gives some idea of the magnitude of the works 

 constructed in India. 



The Chenab canal, that Mr. Odling refers to, was constructed in 

 the Punjaub. Before that canal was made the country was an entire 

 waste. I do not think there was any village in it at all. If there 

 was it consisted of two or three huts here and there. A certain 

 number of nomads, as Mr. Odling says, wandered about the country, 

 feeding their cattle where they could get a little grass or food for 

 them ; but, practically, the place was a desert. Mr. Odling has told 

 us that there are now 1,000,000 people there. In the paper read 

 by Mr. Preston the other day he said that the canal irrigated 

 1,900,000 acres, and it was estimated that it would irrigate 2,900,000. 

 Now most of us know something of Egypt. The culturable area of 

 Egypt is about 5,000,000 acres, and that of the Chenab canal, which is 

 one canal constructed in India by the British Government, will 

 irrigate just about one-half the entire culturable area of Egypt. 

 There are at present 1,000,000 people living where there were 

 perhaps a few hundred who lived there before, and that canal will, 

 in the course of a few years, when developed, be able, probably, to 

 support a population of at least 5,000,000 or 6,000,000. The entire 

 population of Egypt is 6,000,000. That one Chenab canal is sup- 

 porting, not in the same luxury perhaps and not producing such 

 luxurious crops as Egypt, but it is supporting a population of over 

 4,000,000 in comfort. 



Mr. Odling referred to the duties of irrigation officers, and he 

 mentioned that his pleasantest time was in the cold weather. I 

 must take some exception to that, because the pleasantest time I 

 ever knew was during the last famine in Bengal. It was my duty 

 to travel and find work for the famine-stricken people, and I saw the 

 threshing floors, but there were no crops and no work. My duty led 

 me down to the canal that Mr, Odling has quoted, and I there found 

 the whole country in crops and the people well fed and contented. 

 This was at the time of year that Mr. Odling speaks of as being so 

 unpleasant. The crops were luxuriant and the area well irrigated; 



