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whatever benefits we may produce must benefit ourselves by increasing the 
rent. This, of course, is a mere utilitarian argument. It is important that 
we should bind the natives to ourselves by anything that will tend to make 
them more satisfied. In times past they have had the opportunity of 
witnessing our military rule, and they may have had cause to admire our 
administration of justice 5 and I think we ought to consider it a hopeful sign 
that they are now to have the opportunity of finding that we are doing 
all we can in other ways to promote their welfare, and to increase their 
prosperity. I am glad we have had such men as Sir Joseph Fayrer out 
there, and I trust there will be many more who will go and do as he has 
done, and produce the same amount of benefit to that important country. 
Col. J. A. Grant, C.B., C.S.I., F.R.S. — As the hour is getting late, I 
should have preferred to hear Sir Joseph Fayrer’s reply to saying anything 
myself ; but I may allude to the equatorial region of Africa, in which I was 
with Captain Speke, where we had only 49 inches of rain. The altitude of 
the country is 4,000 to 5,000 feet, and as one goes northward to 5° north 
latitude and 2,000 feet altitude, the country is more of a desert, and 
resembles parts of Ceylon in there being a small rainfall. In the region of 
3° south latitude, where the rains reach both the Congo and the Nile, the fall 
of rain may be 60 inches. But, as I have said, I only wish to hear my old 
friend Sir Joseph Fayrer’s reply ; I have been delighted to hear such an 
admirable paper. 
General Maclagan, R.E. — Sir Joseph Fayrer has described the great in- 
equalities of water distribution in India. India suffers sometimes from 
excess of rainfall, causing destructive floods, and sometimes from deficit, 
causing much distress from scarcity of water. And these two things may 
happen at the same time in different parts of the country, — a country not 
only of great magitude, but of which the physical features and conditions 
vary as much as the different countries of Europe, and in some respects 
much more. A great problem in India, where it may be said there is 
ordinarily an abundant supply of water upon the whole, is how to make the 
most of this most valuable gift, and to prevent or diminish the injury it 
causes. Works have to be constructed in India for both objects, at one place 
for removal of excess water, or protection against it, at another for catching 
and economising every drop. Of the irrigation canals that have been 
referred to, some flow continuously throughout the year, the quantity of 
water admitted being to a certain extent under regulation. Others, more 
simple works, known as inundation canals , fill only when the rivers rise 
from the melting of the snows, and then from the periodical rains in the 
hills. Reference has been made to the effects of clearing forests in India. 
There has been, we know, extensive clearance in some parts, in past years, 
before the British occupation of the country. It is on record that wild 
animals used to be hunted in great forests, where now there is not a tree. 
And there can be little doubt that these clearances have affected the climate. 
But it can scarcely be said that the supply of the railway requirements in 
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