172 C. W. ODLING^ ESQ., M.INST.CE., C.S.I., ON 



This is the character of the " south-west monsoon," but there are 

 sometimes localities where the rainfall is deficient or absent, and 

 here it is that irrigation is so beneficial. The north-east monsoon 

 which occurs during winter is of less importance, and is owing to 

 the higher temperature of the air over the ocean, which results in 

 a reverse direction for the air over the land, 



I may add that the Nile receives its periodic supplies from the 

 Abyssinian highlands, mainly through the Atbara, in consequence of 

 the relative positions of land and sea west of the Indian Ocean 

 being similar to those on the east, and the same eff'ects of the 

 sun's heat arise on both. 



Colonel Hendley said that Mr. Odling and Sir Charles Stevens 

 had both referred to the unhealthy condition of the rice tracts which 

 were irrigated from the canals, but he would like to ask Mr. Odling 

 whether it was not true that the canals themselves in certain districts 

 had not, at least in the past, been responsible for increased un- 

 healthiness owing to their having produced waterlogging of the soil, 

 and if this was the case, whether steps had not now been taken with 

 success to overcome this evil. 



I should also have liked, had there been time, to have asked 

 whether the construction of canals in the more arid regions of India 

 had not materially improved the climate especially by leading to 

 increased rainfall. At page 161 reference is made to the pleasure 

 derived by the canal engineer from his friendly intercourse with the 

 people at his tent door. It is such intercourse that encourages 

 loyalty to the Government, but unfortunately frequent transfers, 

 which are the rule in these days, threaten to destroy it. It 

 would be interesting to know whether the irrigation officers 

 are less often moved than those of other departments. Very 

 few names now become household words amongst the peasantry 

 as was the case in the past, when the man who was left long 

 enough in a district to do something for the people was never 

 forgotten. For example. Colonel Dickson, the father of modern 

 irrigation in Ajmere Merwara in Rajputana, who died about the 

 time of the Mutiny, is still spoken of with regard, and a light is, 

 or was, until recently, kept burning at his tomb — in Bewar. 



Mr. Odling has dwelt much upon the magnificent triumphs of 

 engineering which many of the great irrigation works are. As an 

 outsider I have greatly admired them. Who can but wonder, for 



