A LITTLE KNOWN PROVINCE OF THE INDIAN EMPIRE. 135 



There is now no difficulty in re^^pect to communications. 

 In 186G tliere was a main road, metalled in places, but crossed 

 hy numerous unbridged rivers, from Calcutta to Cuttack and 

 thence to the Madras frontier, with a branch to Puri. There 

 were no roads worthy the name from the interior to the sea 

 ■coast, and the rivers beyond the influence of the tide are not 

 navigable from November to July. Now there is a railway 

 right through the province with a branch to Puri, two navigable 

 •canals from Cuttack to the coast, and thence water com- 

 numication both by sea and canals and tidal rivers with 

 Calcutta. There are large irrigation works by which some 

 200,000 acres are yearly irrigated. The canals are not 

 financially profitable, as they scarcely do more than pay working 

 •expenses ; in years of drought they are invaluable, sometimes 

 in a single such year, saving crops of a value equivalent to one 

 fourth or even more of their total cost. Such years are, however, 

 rare ; the average annual rainfall exceeds sixty inches, and is 

 usually sufficient to bring the rice crop to maturity. The 

 increased yield, and the certainty of good crops, would more 

 than reimburse the cultivators for the water rates charged, but 

 they have the same objection to incurring liabilities which it 

 is possible to avoid which prevails elsewhere. I have been 

 informed that last year, 1906, almost all the water which could 

 he supplied was disposed of, so that the advantages, of what is 

 mainly an insurance, are apparently becoming more and more 

 iippreciated. 



My last five years in Orissa were spent in building the High 

 Level Canal, which it was intended to carry on to Midnapore, 

 whence there is a canal to the Hughli ; the work was, however, 

 found to be exceedingly expensive, and it terminates in the 

 xiver Salundi, sixty-seven miles from Cuttack. The canal 

 ■crosses two large rivers, the Bralimini and the Byturni, and 

 many smaller rivers and drainages, so that it involved the 

 •construction of numerous large masonry works. My head- 

 •quarters were on the Pilgrim lioad, where it crosses the river 

 Byturni ; and cholera, I may say, was never absent, though it 

 •was sporadic rather than epidemic. There was no civil station 

 •or other Government officers living at the place. I preferred 

 bread to cJiapatics, a kind of unleavened cake, and accordingly, 

 amongst other servants, I kept a baker. A mutton choj) 

 involved the slaughter of a sheep, and there were other 

 disadvantages incidental to the situation, which was probably 

 the reason why I obtained, as a junior officer, a charge rather 

 beyond what my standing in the Service justified. During the 



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