271. 
liecortls of the Geological Stirve/j of India, 
[VOL. XITI. 
but becaiise I dabbled in cbomistry. Samples of soils, stib-soils, and waters were 
sent for examination. Tlio rongli results of tbis work and of such field observations 
as I could make in the neighbourhood (which was not a reh district) were brought 
together in a paper for the Asiatic Society, London (Joni'nal, Vol. XX, p. 32G, 
18C.3). This paper and a number of official roijorts on the same subject were 
published as Xo. XLII (1864) of the Selections from the Records of the Govern¬ 
ment of India in the Public Woi’ks Department, as “ corres23ondence relating to 
the deterioration of lands from the j)resence in the soil of reh.” Many other 
letters and rejjorts, such as that of the Aligarh Committee in 1878, have from 
time to time been jirintod for departmental circulation; but the above is the only 
information that I know of as available for general reference. 
3. vSo early as 1850, in rejrly to some questions with samples for analysis) 
Dr. 0’Shaughnes.sy had supplied facts from which an understanding of the whole 
case might have been evolved : that the canal water is remarkably pure, although 
containing an aiJju-eeiablo amount of the reh salts; that the sub-soils of reh land 
are remarkably free from salts; that the reh is accumulated in the surface soil; 
iind he pointed out that a free use of canal water, with efficient drainage, rvould 
certainly cure the evil (be., p. 36). No suggestion was, however, made as to 
how the reh came there: so on this score full play was left for fancy to suit 
the bias of the speculator. Accordingly, the final decision passed upon these 
facts by the Board of Revenue is recorded as follows (Z. e., p. 8) :—“ There is^ 
then, positive scientific evidence that the canal wmter is perfectly j)ure, and the 
idea, though it has been started more than once, cannot be entei-tained for a 
moment that the salts are de^Josited by the w’ator used in irrigation. When 
reh appears, it must be that it has previously existed in the soil. For in no 
lands is the efflorescence of reh so extensive or so rank as in those large spaces 
so common in all the villages of Paneeput and Soonput, where the plough has 
never been driven; where seed has never been cast; and which, under the name 
of Icullur (answering to the oosur of the midland districts), were excluded from 
the malgoozarce area, for the express reason that they w'ore barren, or, in other 
W'ords, had too much saline matter in their soil to admit of their being cultivated.” 
This judgment gives a fair illustration of a mischief that too often occurs in India ; 
as must happen w'hore the higher administration is in the hands of men w'ho 
have grown into it, after a long training in a narrow but very real school of 
virtual omnipotence, resulting in impenetrable self-confidence; and who con¬ 
sequently never hesitate to undertake and jiass decisions ujjon matters whore they 
arc quite unqualified to hold an opinion. 
4. Finding that in this matter the local fancy was without rational bounds, 
and the bias strong in a false direction, I set myself (in the paper referred to) 
to trace the source of the reh ; I pointed out (Z. c,, p. 40) how the supposition 
of any store of reh in the ground was untenable, except of course when reh-watcr 
had lodged in the upper wmter table ; I jiroved a case (Z. c., p. 43) in which a 
reh soil had been produced by accumulation from a source no more abundant 
than the canal water; I stated my conviction (/. c., p. 45) that the old nsar or 
kaJar lands were only special areas of inefficient drainage, lands more or less 
dependent on evaporation for the removal of surface waters; that, in fact, the 
