other, and small windows above for ventilation purposes. Each bedroom
has always a bath-room attached to it. A verandah runs all round the
house. The roof is either flat and covered with stucco supported
on beams and joists; or it is pitched and covered with thatch,
which is much the cooler arrangement. The floors are of polished
lime, called chunam; the doors are double; the walls are white or
colour-washed—never papered, as it is difficult to get the paper put
on properly, and it is apt to peel off in the rains. But there is
no reason that it should do so; and I strongly recommend you to get
a practical lesson in paper-hanging and wall-colouring and painting
before you go out, for you will find the knowledge exceedingly useful;
it is simply impossible to get that kind of work done out of the
Presidency towns.

Such buildings as racket-courts and swimming baths you may also have
to erect occasionally; but I don’t know that there is anything special
to say about them, except that the former are always open, with white
walls and black balls, and that the front wall should look to the west,
so that you may be screened from the sun in the evening. Of course you
can have a morning court on the other side, if the station is rich
enough to afford it.

Every executive engineer is supposed to be consulting engineer and
architect to the public generally, and the civil authorities of the
district in particular, and if the magistrate is an energetic man (as
he generally is), you may have to prepare designs for market-places,
_serais_ (or resting-places for native travellers), municipal offices,
clock towers, and the like; and if you are of a mechanical turn, you
may be sure that you will be consulted about the machinery employed in
the jail manufactures, where you will find some mechanical appliances
that will considerably astonish you.

The Water Supply of a range of barracks is, as a rule, derived from
wells, which indeed is the only practicable course in the very flat
plains of Upper India. The water is generally good and wholesome, and
the supply sufficient. This is, indeed, the general source even for
all Indian cities. In only a few have proper waterworks been as yet
constructed, by which a supply can be delivered under pressure. Even in
Calcutta, the works are not yet completed.

The question of a proper water supply for native towns is daily
assuming more and more importance, especially since it now seems pretty
clear that there is a close connection between impure drinking water
and that terrible scourge the cholera. Waterworks have been designed
and carried out in the case of a few important towns like Poona, but
the majority of towns cannot afford to pay for expensive conduits,
filtering beds, pumps, and reservoirs, while they might be able to
pay for simpler schemes. In these as in other similar cases, I would
impress on you the necessity of mastering principles and thinking out
of a groove—I don’t mean neglecting details, but turning your attention
to what is essential, and ignoring what is merely accidental.

For the privies, the dry-earth system of conservancy, common all over
the East, is universal, and, if properly carried out, is no doubt the
best and healthiest. Such a system, however, it is almost impossible
to work properly in a large crowded city, and there is no doubt that a
regular system of sewers is greatly to be desired in such cases. That
of Calcutta is only partially completed. In Bombay and Madras, complete
schemes have been devised, but I believe are not yet commenced. The
cost of such works is again the obstacle, as well as the prejudices
of caste among the people; the want of surface fall in so many cities
is also a difficulty, as great expense would have to be incurred for
pumping.

There are no Gas Works except at the Presidency towns, and as coal is
only found in a few places in India, other cities must wait until some
one can devise a mode of manufacturing gas cheaply from vegetable oils,
which seem the most practicable source of supply in India. The subject
is an important one.

India abounds in rivers, streams, and watercourses of various kinds,
and therefore the subject of _Bridges_ is a very important one to the
engineer; but before describing any of the permanent structures that
have been built, it may be useful to say a word as to the temporary
expedients employed on lines of road, when money is not forthcoming
for the more expensive forms of construction. The first of these is a
sort of Irishman’s bridge—it is no bridge at all; you go through the
water instead of over it, by means of Paved Causeways, which are often
employed on watercourses which contain no water for the greater part
of the year, and are only flooded occasionally. The banks are cut down
to a gentle slope on each side, and a pavement or solid flooring of
masonry or concrete is built to afford a firm roadway for vehicles.
If the water is too deep or the stream too strong, the traveller must
wait till the flood goes down. You will find a good account of such a
pavement across the River Soane in No. 2 of the ‘Professional Papers.’
It is a mile long by 12 feet wide, and answers its purpose very well.

On many of the great lines of road, Boat-Bridges are in use during
the low-water season, which are taken up and replaced by ferry boats
during the rains. The boats used are the ordinary native boats, with
a platform laid on balks and saddles; but they are often troublesome
when the river is falling, owing to the necessity of removing some of
the boats before they are left high and dry. Cylindrical Pontoons are
preferable in this respect, and are often used. There is a pontoon
bridge over the Jumna at Agra, and a very fine one at Cawnpore, over
the Ganges. You will find descriptions of these in the ‘Professional
Papers.’

On the Hill roads, temporary bridges are very common. Some are very
simple, consisting of a single suspended cable, on which is a sort of
travelling cradle in which the passenger sits, and is hauled across
by tackle from the shore end. Others consist of a rope for the feet
and two others for the hands, the three being kept apart by triangular
sticks, and if you are of an acrobatic turn of mind, they are
convenient enough. More ambitious specimens have a suspended platform
of bamboo 3 feet wide; and a neat Wire rope bridge of 200 feet span was
built over the Jumna two years ago by some young officers who went out,
with the help of the native sappers.

You will find another peculiar kind described in the ‘Treatise,’ and
in No. 166 of the 4 ‘Professional Papers,’ put up by Major Lang, R.E.,
on the Hindustan and Thibet road. These are _Sanghoos_, consisting of
beams weighted with stones, and gradually projecting one over the other
until they meet in the centre. A Rope Suspension bridge worth study,
over the Chenab, is described in No. 202 of the ‘Professional Papers.’
I would also draw your attention to the account of the Iron Suspension
bridge over the Beosi at Saugur, described in No. 30 of the ‘Papers,’
erected forty years ago by an infantry officer with the unskilled
labour of the district, and using materials procured on the spot. It is
a good specimen of the way in which an officer is often called upon in
India to exercise his mother-wit, and dispense with the ordinary means
and appliances.

Of more permanent bridges, Timber structures are not much used in the
plains, because wood is generally very expensive, and the extreme heat
and damp loosen the joints and threaten decay to the timbers. You will,
however, find several described in the books so often referred to,
notably one over the Barra river, near Peshawur, by Lieutenant (now
Major) Browne, R.E., one of my assistants at Roorkee lately.

Masonry Bridges of brick and stone are common enough, and you may
often have to construct them. You will find several described in the
‘Papers,’ and the descriptions of the Morhur and Markunda bridges
are especially good and suggestive. The piers and abutments of such
bridges are generally founded on well-cylinders in the way I have
already described, the number varying from three to ten according to
the weight and size. In the bridges on the Lahore and Delhi Railway,
great economy of construction was attempted by making each pier of one
single well-cylinder, 12½ feet diameter inside, supporting a pair of
lattice girders carrying a single line of rails. Now, as these were
sunk from 40 to 50 feet below the bed, and had an additional height of
some 20 feet to the girder above, the stability of such a long slender
column was somewhat doubtful; and when the river scoured out its sandy
bed down to the clay stratum in which the cylinder rested, the force
of the stream, acting with such a leverage, threw over several of the
piers;—at least, in this way I interpret the failures that occurred in
these bridges last year. Had each pier been composed of two cylinders
(one for each pair of girders and line of rails), with the two braced
diagonally together, they would probably have stood.

I have not spoken of the calculations necessary for the Discharge of
these rivers, and the Waterway of these bridges, because it is too long
a subject to be treated of in a lecture. I will only say here that in
no one single point is the Indian engineer so liable to make mistakes;
there is nothing that requires so much study, and failures on account
of insufficient waterway are of every-day occurrence in that country.
And even when your bridge is built, and you have good reason for
believing the waterway to be ample, so treacherous are these streams,
that their course may change in a single night, and your abutments may
be taken in reverse. In the bridge over the Sutlej, thirty-eight spans
of 110 feet each were provided for the stream, and yet, when I saw it,
not a drop of water was going under the bridge; the stream had shifted
while the bridge was being built. Twenty other spans have since been
added, the embankments have been made very massive and defended by
spurs and groins at a great expense against the action of the river;
yet there is no certainty that the river may not attack the embankment
at some other point in the breadth of its valley (which is 5 miles
across), and force its way through, leaving the bridge high and dry. By
the last mail I see that one of the piers has failed, and all traffic
is stopped.

Of Iron Girder Bridges there have been many fine specimens erected
since the railways have been begun. Except a few small ones which have
been constructed at Roorkee, they have all been made up in England,
sent out in pieces, and erected on the spot. I especially commend
to your notice the paper on the Tonse Bridge, in the ‘Professional
Papers,’ as giving an excellent idea of the difficulties of this kind
of work.

So much, then, for bridges. I now turn to the very important subject
of _Roads_. Great progress has been made within the last twenty years
in providing India with roads, but thousands of miles are still wanted
before the road system can be considered anything like complete. The
cost of carriage in many parts of the country is still enormous, owing
to the wretched state of the unmetalled tracks, and whole districts may
be starving while plenty reigns in those adjoining, owing to the same
cause. However, these are questions with which the young engineer at
least has seldom anything to do; his work begins when the construction
of the road is decided upon. The rules regarding the laying out and
construction of roads are of course the same in India as in other
countries. I will only dwell on characteristic specialities. Of the
construction of the earthwork I spoke in my last lecture. The Metalling
employed is kunkur, already described, and various kinds of stone used
in macadamizing in the ordinary way. Heavy iron or stone rollers, drawn
by bullocks, are usually employed, but steam road-rollers have lately
been introduced in Calcutta, Bombay, and even the wilds of the Central
Provinces.

The Grand Trunk Road[B] runs from Calcutta to Peshawur, a distance
of 1600 miles, passing through the Rajmehal hills by some very heavy
works, then on to Benares, Allahabad, Cawnpore, and Delhi, thence to
Umballa, and Lahore, and Jhelum, by massive embankments; thence for the
last 160 miles to Peshawur it is carried by some of the heaviest and
most difficult works in the world. The designer and constructor of the
whole line was Lieut. (now Colonel) A. Taylor, R.E., C.B., director of
the attack at the siege of Delhi.

The Hindostan and Thibet road is another fine work which you will
find described in the books. It is carried right through the hills
from Kalka at the foot, viâ Simla, up the valley of the Sutlej, and
is about 300 miles long; but only the first 60 miles are open for
wheeled traffic. Sometimes it is carried but little above the level of
the river, then it ascends a hill-side by a series of steep zigzags,
then it goes boldly through a rock by a heavy cutting or short tunnel,
then through a magnificent forest of deodars, then by the side of a
vertically scarped hill, 2000 feet down, in which the road is either
blasted out of the solid rock or supported by iron bearers let into
the rock, and carrying a timbered floor. Probably no road in the world
offers such fine scenery to the traveller. The officer who did most
of the work on this road was Major Lang, R.E., my _locum tenens_ at
Roorkee. Before leaving the subject of roads, I may draw your attention
to two or three instruments used in tracing hill roads, which you will
find described in the ‘Treatise’—the Madras Clinometer, and De Lisle’s
Clinometer.

It was in 1849, I think, that the first short experimental line of
_Railway_ was opened in India, between Bombay and Tanna, and soon
afterwards the then Governor-General, Lord Dalhousie, issued his famous
memorandum laying down the principles which were to be adopted in the
construction of the great imperial lines. That great statesman had
been President of the Board of Trade, under Sir Robert Peel, during
the time of the English railway mania, and had been an eye-witness of
the reckless manner in which money had been squandered by the system,
or rather no-system, which had characterized the construction of the
English lines. From that at least his famous minute preserved India. It
prescribed the chief lines to be laid down, the gauge to be observed,
and various other points essential to prevent the public from paying
for the rivalry of competing interests. The money was chiefly raised
in England by the various companies, but the Government guaranteed
a minimum dividend of 5 per cent. per annum to the shareholders, in
return for which it was to exercise a complete control over the work,
through its own consulting engineers. This divided responsibility
doubtless had great disadvantages, and it has since been thought
preferable for the Government to borrow the money itself, and to
undertake the construction of the lines through the P. W. Dept.; but at
that time Government was not in a position to undertake the work, and
the money subscribed to make railways could not of course be diverted
to any other purpose, as would probably have been the case in the
event of war, had Government borrowed the money itself. At any rate,
the main lines have been constructed, though doubtless at a higher
cost than was anticipated, and their opening has been attended with
incalculable advantage to India, both in a military and political, as
well as a commercial, point of view.

The East Indian Railway runs from Calcutta up the valley of the
Ganges, by the great cities of Burdwan and Patna, near Benares, to
Cawnpore, Mirzapore, and Allahabad, and thence to Allyghur and Delhi,
a distance of 1040 miles. Agra is served by a branch line from the
Toondla junction. There is also a branch line, 220 miles long, from
Allahabad to Jubbulpore, where it joins the Great Indian Peninsula line
from Bombay, a distance of 600 miles. The Eastern Bengal line runs for
120 miles from Calcutta to Kooshtea, whence it is now being continued
towards Assam. Another line runs from Bombay across India to Madras,
whence a line runs down the coast to Trichinopoly. From Delhi the main
line proceeds to Saharunpore, Umballa, and Loodiana, to Lahore, a
distance of 330 miles, whence a line of 210 miles runs down to Moultan.
There is also a branch line, 50 miles long, from Cawnpore to Lucknow,
and a few others with which I need not trouble you.

The new lines now being projected, and to be constructed by the
Government itself, are the line from Lahore to Peshawur, 265 miles,
one from Moultan to Kotree, down the valley of the Indus, 600 miles;
one from Agra, through Rajpootana, to Indore; and another from Delhi.
It has been resolved to adopt a mètre gauge for these lines, and to
construct them with the severest regard to economy, and the Government
engineers, military and civil, have doubtless a fine field before them.

To return to the lines already opened; they comprise some of the finest
engineering works in the world. On the East Indian line, are the great
iron bridges over the Jumna at Allahabad, and those over the Tonse
and Soane, besides very heavy embankments and severe rock cuttings
in the new chord line through the Rajmehal hills. On the Lahore and
Delhi line, are the heavy embankments between the Jumna and Sutlej,
and the bridging of the Jumna, Sutlej, Beas, and Markunda rivers. The
continuation of this line towards Peshawur by the Government engineers
will involve works of great difficulty and magnitude in the rocky
country between the Jhelum and Indus, and the bridging of those two
rivers, besides the Ranee and the Chenab. The passage of the last river
alone will task the highest engineering skill, as that of the Sutlej
has already, and for the same reasons,—the exceedingly capricious
character of the stream, the sandy nature of the bed and banks, and the
enormous quantities of silt brought down by the waters.

On the Great Indian Peninsula line are works of at least equal
magnitude, though of a different kind, foremost among which stand the
great inclines of the Bhore and Thull Ghats, by which the railway
ascends the steep barrier of the Western Ghats by a series of zigzags,
inclines, curves, and tunnels, which render those works unequalled
in the world. On the Thull Ghat, for five continuous miles there is a
grade of 1 in 37, in which occur many severe curves; while the Bhore
Ghat incline is 19 miles long, and in that distance has no less than
thirty tunnels.

The Rails on all these lines are of the usual double-headed pattern,
weighing from 66 to 90 lbs. per lineal yard, and laid generally in
chairs on transverse wooden sleepers. These sleepers are either of one
or other of the woods that I have already described, sometimes kyanized
or burnettized; but large numbers of creosoted fir sleepers have also
been imported from Europe, and a certain number from Australia. The
Punjab line is almost entirely laid on Greaves’s patent Pot sleepers,
with which doubtless you are acquainted. The advantage of such a
roadway is of course the indestructibility of its material (iron); its
disadvantage, that the cast-iron sleepers are apt to get broken, and
that the rigidity of the roadway is bad for the rolling-stock at high
speeds. But there is no doubt that the life of a timber sleeper in
India is very short, and that it is very expensive to renew them; and a
good wrought-iron permanent way, that shall not be absolutely ruinous
in first cost, is still a desideratum.

The Locomotives employed on the Northern lines more nearly resemble
those in America than in England, as they have to burn wood instead
of coal. A huge spark-catcher is hoisted over the chimney, as serious
accidents at one time were common from the blazing sparks of wood out
of the uncovered funnel; and a cow-catcher is placed just in front of
the smoke-box, to take up stray cows or buffaloes, who _will_ get on to
the line in spite of the fencing. The engine-drivers are all Europeans,
I think, at present.

Fences are made of cactus or other hedges, or of the usual wire line,
or often simply of a mud wall and ditch.

There is nothing particular to say about the Stations, which are
similar to those in England, with some adaptation to the requirements
of the climate.

The Passenger Carriages are a great deal too much like those in
England, and are generally very hot and uncomfortable. The best have
double roofs, with cane backs and seats; but none have punkahs or
tatties; and it is only lately, and at the instance of a very stern
reminder from Government, that any serious attempt has been made to
render passenger carriages for European travellers more comfortable in
the hot weather. On the Great Indian Peninsula line, however, there are
very comfortable saloon carriages, with movable berths, and bath-room
and W.C. attached. Considering that from Bombay to Calcutta or Lahore
is a journey of some seventy-five hours, it is evident that these
things are serious matters in India.

That the results of these railways have been of the greatest benefit to
India in both a political and military sense, it would be impossible
to deny. Their educational and social value, too, to the people at
large have been great, and indirectly they have doubtless added much
to the wealth of the country. But only one line, I think, pays more
than the guaranteed 5 per cent., so that for all the others, the
Government pays a heavy charge annually for the advantages offered by
the railways, and this charge has of course to be met by taxation. The
traffic, too, is increasing very slowly, and it seems that much is
still wanting to assist its development to a much larger extent than
heretofore. One reason for this is, doubtless, that a great portion of
the goods traffic consists of articles, such as grain, of large bulk
and small intrinsic value, which will not bear high transit charges.
Another cause is that the natives, though travelling far more than
was anticipated, have not yet learned to travel to the same extent as
Europeans.

One mode of increasing the inducement would, I suggest, be to make the
railway fares more uniform, and the tickets more easily procurable than
at present; and this mode, indeed, would apply to English, as well as
to Indian, lines. There seems no more reason that you should have to
buy your ticket for a railway journey five minutes before starting,
and all in a scramble in front of a little pigeon-hole, than that
you should be forced to purchase your postage-stamps at the General
Post-office only, and just five minutes before the post goes out. I
don’t see why all journeys, up to a certain number of miles, should not
be performed at one uniform rate of charge, and by tickets procurable
at the nearest stationer’s, and available for any line in the kingdom.
Such a measure would be a great convenience to the traveller, would
prevent him in India from being cheated, as he often is, by the native
railway clerks, would effect a considerable economy in the railway
office establishment, and, where the lines are all under Government
control, ought to be carried out with very little trouble.

But we must go on to the leading speciality of all Indian engineering,
I mean, the subject of _Irrigation Works_. Of course there are other
countries in which artificial irrigation is extensively developed,—more
indeed than in India,—notably, for instance, in the provinces of
Piedmont and Lombardy, in the kingdom of Italy, where they are in
advance of us both in the economical distribution of water, and in all
legislative questions affecting the administration and rights of, and
property in water. But in no other country but India have works been
undertaken on so gigantic a scale; and it is in the dealing with such
vast bodies of water, and their carriage over such great distances and
in the face of so many impediments, that the specialities of Indian
irrigation works really consist.

Now, in order to give you a clear idea of the subject, I must begin by
premising a few remarks of an agricultural and financial character.
India is almost entirely an agricultural country. It is true she has
great mineral resources, but these are as yet undeveloped. She has had
valuable manufactures, and there is no reason she should not have them
again; but for many ages past and for as many to come, she has been and
will be almost entirely agricultural.

Again, half of the whole Government revenue is derived from the land.
It is called a land _tax_, but is really a land _rent_; that is, rent
paid by the occupier or cultivator, as the case may be, to the State as
the great landlord. This has been the case all over the East from time
immemorial; the only ownership in the land belongs to the Government,
although the occupier or cultivator often has rights of occupancy which
are almost as inalienable as the right of the State.

This being the case, it is evident that the Government is as much
interested as the people in the productiveness of the harvest; for
if the harvests fail, the people not only starve, but cannot pay the
land rent, and the Government has to feed thousands of hungry people
with an empty exchequer. Owing to the absence of roads and railways in
years gone by, any failure of the rains in a province produced the most
appalling distress, and the people died by hundreds and thousands.

Hence, so long back as 300 years ago, the Mahomedan emperors,
commonly called the Great Moguls, took a great interest in artificial
irrigation, and under the direction of a Mahomedan “Royal Engineer,”
one Aliverdi Khan, several canals were opened out. Some of these,
after falling into disuse from various causes, have been re-opened and
improved under the British Government, and are now known as the East
and West Jumna Canals, the one being 110, the other 500 miles, long.
Then the Government commenced a great work of its own, the Ganges
Canal, of which the main channels alone are 700 miles long, and the
first-class distributaries 3000 miles more. Since then, the Bari Doab
Canal has been completed; the Sirhind, Soane, and Sardah canals are in
progress, and others are projected.

It will perhaps give you a better idea of this kind of works, which are
all similar in character, if I briefly describe the largest of all, and
the one with which I am best acquainted,—the Ganges Canal. This canal
takes out of the River Ganges at Hurdwar, where the river leaves the
hills and enters the plains, by an artificial channel 200 feet wide and
20 feet in depth, the water having a depth of 10 feet, and the fall of
the bed being 2 feet per mile. This gives a volume of water of nearly
7000 cubic feet per second,—rather more than the Thames at Richmond, I
think. The canal, flowing onwards, crosses three great hill torrents,
two at a lower level, and one by a level crossing, and finally reaches
the valley of the Solani, which it passes by an aqueduct three miles
long, revetted with masonry throughout, the Solani river itself being
passed by a bridge, which gives it 750 feet of waterway. After crossing
this valley, 20 miles from its head, the canal arrives on level and
comparatively easy ground, and pursues its way along the watershed of
the country between the Ganges and Jumna rivers for another 30 miles,
broken only by sundry falls and locks, and spanned by several bridges.
At 50 miles from its head, it divides into two branches, of which one
runs down to Futtehgurh, the main line continuing to Cawnpore, and
throwing off other branches to Bolundshuhr and Etawah. From these main
lines, the principal distributaries run on both sides, nearly parallel
to the channel, and throwing off in their turn other minor lines,—until
the whole country is covered with a network of irrigating channels,
conveying the water to every field.

Thus you will see that this and other irrigating canals differ from an
ordinary navigation canal, such as you have in England, in two very
important particulars. First, the irrigating canal has a running stream
of water which is gradually expended as we follow its course, and so
its channel diminishes in size; secondly, it is dug on the highest line
or watershed of the country, so as to secure a command of level for
irrigating the whole area.

Now, as to the use to which this water is applied; you will understand
that there are two harvests in Upper India: the _rubbee_, or spring
harvest, which is reaped in March or April, and consists mainly of
wheat; and the _khurreef_, or autumn harvest, which is gathered in
September, October, or November, and consists of rice, sugar, Indian
corn, and various tropical products. All these require steady and
constant irrigation, and they get it from the spring and autumnal
rains, or from wells, during the average normal seasons; but if the
rains fail and the wells run dry, they are dependent on the canals, and
even when the season is regular, the supplementary irrigation from the
canal greatly increases the yield of the crop.

The Soil of Upper India is generally a light friable clay, excellent
for wheat, but absorbing a great deal of water. In Bengal, they have
a rich mud extending to a great depth, and of such fertility that
three crops are often grown on it in a year. In the Central Provinces,
there is the black cotton soil, which is, I believe, disintegrated
trap or granite. Across the Indus, again, we have a hard stiff clay,
which, though not good for wheat, is valuable for many crops when well
watered. I notice this question of the soils here, because it is an
important point for the engineer when projecting a new canal, for all
these soils require different quantities of water.

In designing a canal such as has been described, we must fix the head
at a point high up on the course of the parent river, first to get a
command of level, so that our canal may run on high ground; and next
because, in the higher portion of its course, the river water is free
from silt, and the river bed is more stable and less liable to the
caprice of the stream, which, lower down, might abandon our canal mouth.

Having fixed on the point of departure, then comes the question, how
large is our channel to be? That depends, first, on the quantity of
water we can get out of the river when at its lowest; secondly, on the
slope or fall we give to the bed of the canal. The minimum quantity of
water is, of course, determined by observation, and this has hitherto
practically fixed the capacity of canals in Northern India, because the
spring crop grown in the dry season is so much the more valuable of
the two; but in later projects, an additional capacity of channel has
been allowed, so that an extra supply of water may be admitted in the
autumn, when the river has plenty to spare.

As to the fall of the bed, or the Velocity to be allowed to the
artificial waterway, that is a question depending chiefly on the nature
of the soil. Several of the Indian Canals have been designed with too
high velocities, and the consequence has been a cutting and scouring of
the banks and beds, which have seriously endangered the various masonry
works in their course. On the other hand, if you give too little
velocity, of course you have to go to a greater expense by making a
larger channel to carry the same quantity of water, and you won’t
have velocity enough to carry forward the silt held in suspension,
or to prevent the growth of weeds, a serious evil in the tropics. On
the whole, it seems now generally admitted that a velocity of 2½ feet
per second is about what should be aimed at, though a compromise of
conflicting interests, in this as in other cases, has often to be made.

When, owing to the slope of the bed being less than that of the
country, the slope, if continued, would bring the canal bed too high,
and embankments would have to be made, it is evident that the bed must
be lowered by an artificial Fall or Rapid, made of such material and
shape that the mass of water may flow over it without injury, and take
up a new level below. The best forms of falls and rapids have been
the subject of great discussion amongst Indian canal engineers. The
Ogee fall in use on the Ganges Canal is now superseded by the Vertical
fall of Colonel Dyas,—the principle of which is that the shock of the
falling water is received into a cistern sunk below the bed, so as
to act as an elastic cushion. A grating of wooden bars, inclined at
an angle, and fixed along the crest, is also generally added. These
bars act like the teeth of a comb, and, by dividing the water into
filaments, greatly reduce its force.

If you want to navigate your canal, Locks must be provided as well as
falls; but the difficulties of navigation up stream are very great, and
the traffic on all these canals, with a current of some three miles
an hour, is in a very undeveloped state. It is doubtful whether it
is not impossible to combine satisfactorily the requirements of both
irrigation and navigation in the same channel.

At the heads of your branches or main distributaries, Regulating gates
will be required with sluices, by which the supply of water may be
divided, increased, or diminished, as the case may be. A similar work
will be required at the head of the canal where it leaves the river.
The tail generally ends in a fall or rapid, by which the water is
discharged into a river or nullah with a scour to clear away the silt.

You will find details of all these works in the Roorkee C. E.
‘Treatise.’ Besides these, Bridges of communication will be wanted for
the roads crossing the canal; Rest-houses (_chokees_) for the use of
the establishment; Escape heads for discharging surplus water; Inlets
for the reception of cross-drainage; and other works.

One chief object of carrying the canal at a high level is that it
should interfere as little as possible with the natural Drainage lines
of the country; but it is occasionally indispensable that it should
cross some of them, and it may cross them under three cases:—1. When
the bed of the canal is higher than the bed of the drainage line. 2.
When it is lower. 3. When the two beds are on the same level.

In the first case, the canal is carried over by an Aqueduct, which
may be of masonry or iron, according to the size of the canal, and
which must allow sufficient waterway underneath for the passage of the
drainage line when in flood.

In the second case, the drainage line is carried over the canal by a
Super-passage, which is in effect an aqueduct, only that here you have
to provide waterway above the canal for the river in flood. The canal,
if necessary, may be carried below it by an artificial fall of the
usual construction.

The third case rarely occurs in practice, and never when it can
possibly be avoided—there are the same objections to it as in the
case of a Level crossing on a railway. When it _has_ to be done, the
method of doing it may be understood by an explanation of the Rutmoo
level-crossing on the Ganges Canal at Dhunowrie, six miles above
Roorkee. A regulating bridge, with sluices, is fixed across the Canal,
just below the junction. A series of flood-gates hung between piers is
fixed across the Rutmoo, on the down-stream side of the canal; these
gates fall outwards by a hinge at the bottom, and are held upright by
a catch, which can be easily knocked out, and when thus held up, they
retain the canal at its normal level. When the Rutmoo is in flood,
the Canal sluice-gates are lowered to prevent the flood water rushing
down the canal, and choking it with silt or débris. At the same time,
the Rutmoo flood-gates are lowered by knocking out the catches, and
the whole flood water pours across the canal, and flows down its own
channel. When the flood is over, the sluices are raised, and the
flood-gates also one by one, the pressure of the water being taken off
by dropping planks down grooves in front, provided for that purpose.
Such a work of course requires the presence of an establishment to
manage it, and is very liable to be damaged by carelessness on the
sudden occurrence of a flood.

Well—the canal having been made and filled with water, how are we
to get the water into the fields? First, it flows down the main
distributaries, and then into secondary channels, which are laid out
at proper slopes, and of a size varying according to the amount of
water and the area to be watered. From these it is passed by pipes of
wood, iron, or earthenware, under the banks on to the fields, which
are divided into squares (_kyarees_), into which the water is passed
_seriatim_.

As there is generally less water than is required, village watercourses
are all filled in their turns; thus one set will be filled on three
days of the week, and another set on three other days, and so on.
The water rate is levied by the canal officer according to the area
irrigated, and the kind of crop taking it, as some crops want more
water than others, and are also better able to pay for it. Such a
system is obviously open to many objections, for it entails endless
labour in measurement, perpetual watchfulness, and much dispute and
interference, besides great waste. Some system has therefore long
been sought by which the water should be measured out at the head of
the distributary channel or village watercourse, and charged off like
beer or wine. Hitherto, however, all attempts to do this in India have
failed; chiefly, because we cannot find any practical machine that will
not get out of order and cannot be tampered with, by which a uniform
discharge may be secured in a given time under a varying head of
pressure. Could this be done, it is obvious that if a head or opening
of a given capacity were left open for a certain time, we should know
exactly how many cubic feet of water had been sent to a particular
village. Lieut. Carroll, Royal Engineers, a very clever and promising
officer, invented a module (as it is called), which you will find
described in the ‘Treatise,’ and which has been the nearest approach to
a machine of the above kind.

By comparison of the discharge of his canal at different points and
measurement of his irrigated areas, it is obvious that the canal
officer can collect data for determining what is styled “the irrigating
duty per cubic foot.” This varies much with the soil, the rate of
evaporation and other data, but on the best-managed canals, will
amount to the irrigation of 300 acres for each cubic foot per second
of water discharged at the main head. This is the rate on the Eastern
Jumna Canals; on others it is not nearly so high, and in new projects
about 200 are usually assumed. There are various other statistical
data for canals of great value, which you will find treated of in the
‘Professional Papers’ and the Roorkee ‘Treatise.’

In Southern India, the canals are of less elaborate construction,
owing to the more permanent character of the rivers in the lower
portions of their course, and to the abundance of excellent stone found
there, while in Northern India we have to be content with brick. The
chief object of engineering skill in a Madras system of canals is the
_Anicut_ or Weir thrown across the river at the point of departure, by
which a head of water is secured for the supply of the canals. Many of
these weirs are elaborate and costly affairs—that over the Godavery
is a mile and a half long, and the weir over the Soane, now under
construction, is little less. I show you on the plan the one over the
Kistna, which is a good example of its kind. You will see that the body
is composed of rubble stone, defended by ashlar from the action of the
water, and resting partly on shallow wells, and partly on the bed of
the river itself. This shallow character of foundations on sandy beds,
to which I have already alluded in a former lecture, is certainly a
peculiarity of Southern Indian engineering; but you will see the long
slope or apron of stone in rear of the weir, where the action of the
water is most severely felt after being checked in its onward flow,
and caused to whirl and scour. Very severe action takes place here for
some time after the weir is built, and large quantities of loose rough
stone are thrown in from time to time to fill up all gaps in the slope,
until the whole work has become firm. Moreover, the sand in these
rivers is of a coarser texture than that in Upper India, which, when
saturated with water, becomes a mere quicksand, which would swallow up
a much greater quantity of stone than the other. The weir, you will
observe, is provided with sluices, by which the accumulated silt in
front of the heads of the canals may be scoured through the body of the
work, these sluice-heads for the supply of the canals on both banks
of the river being built at the two ends of the weir. This system has
generally been applied to the deltas of the Madras rivers, and the more
gentle slope of the country has enabled these canals to be largely used
for navigation as well, to the great advantage of the traffic; the fall
of the bed is often only six inches per mile, or even less.

But besides its canals, Southern India, as well as Central and Western
India, make enormous use of Tanks or reservoirs for the purpose of
irrigation, the undulating and broken nature of the country as clearly
indicating their use, as the flat plains of Northern India appear to
demand canals. Many of these tanks have been in use for ages, and in
the single province of Mysore alone there are not less than 30,000;
hence, of course, they vary much in size, from those with an area of a
few square yards up to those which contain several square miles, and
which form artificial lakes on which you can navigate. The revenue of
the country depends on the maintenance of these tanks, as in the case
of canals elsewhere, and the chief duty of the Madras engineers is
their inspection and repair, in concert with the civil officials of the
district.

However much tanks may differ in locality and size, they may all be
said to consist of the following parts:—1. A Dam or bund, natural or
artificial, or both, by which the water is restrained. 2. A Stream, by
which the tank is fed, unless it is fed by direct rainfall. 3. A Sluice
or sluices, by which the ponded water is drawn off to be used for
irrigation. 4. A Waste Weir, overfall, or _Calingula_, by which, when
the tank is full, surplus water can escape safely. The Dam is generally
the most important work in a tank, and the determination of its site,
and the construction of it when chosen, often demand engineering skill
of a high order. It is, of course, first of all necessary to take a
very careful series of levels in order to determine whether the amount
of water that can be ponded up by a given length and height of dam will
be enough to pay for the cost of the work. Next, you must determine
whether there is a sufficient area of land in the vicinity demanding
water, and whether you are pretty sure of a good supply of water for
the tank.

The Dam may be built of earth or stone, or of a combination of the
two; and in the case where a great depth of water is ponded up, the
foundations of the dam must, of course, be constructed in the most
substantial and careful manner, for a failure may involve not merely
the destruction of the tank, but the loss of hundreds of lives. The
question of the best form of retaining wall to withstand the pressure
of great depths of water, has excited a good deal of discussion, and
you will find some of the best sections in the ‘Papers,’ as well as a
good description and diagram of calculation of the Moota Dam in Bombay.

The other chief point in a tank besides the dam is the Waste Weir,
which is generally built at the exit from the tank of the original
channel by which it is fed. It must be made of sufficient length to
discharge the maximum quantity of water which your calculations have
shown you is likely to pass over it, and it must be strong enough,
both in body and foundation, to resist both the pressure and the shock
of this water. For this latter purpose, the principle of the vertical
canal fall, already described, is often used, and the falling water is
received into a cistern, by which its shock is broken.

You will find a chapter devoted to tanks in the ‘Roorkee Treatise,’ and
several examples of the different kinds employed.

As to the irrigating duty of tank water, it is roughly calculated that
a cubic yard of water is required for every square yard of land; this,
however, refers to rice, which takes far more water than wheat. We have
not time to pursue the subject further.

Before closing the subject of irrigation works, I may perhaps be
allowed to name one or two of those engineers who have added most to
our knowledge of that science. Foremost stands the name of the late
Sir Proby Cautley, F.R.S., of the late Bengal Artillery, the designer
and constructor of the Ganges Canal; then of Sir A. Cotton, of the
Madras Engineers, his great rival, head and founder of the Madras
school of irrigation; Colonel Baird Smith, F.R.S., chief engineer at
the siege of Delhi; and then the late Colonel Dyas, of the Bengal
Engineers, one of the most scientific officers in India.

Though not exactly under the head of irrigation works, the question of
_River Works_, or river improvements, is not very far removed from it,
and though we have but little time to spare for it, it would not be
right to exclude such a subject altogether from your notice, for many
of you will probably have a good deal to say to it sooner or later.

An engineer is generally called upon to devise works for the
improvement of a river, either to increase its navigable facilities
or to prevent its waters from inundating the country. With regard to
the first object, the work in India generally consists in removing
obstacles, such as shoals, kunkur banks, sunken trees or boats, and I
cannot do better than draw your attention to the admirable paper on the
Gogra River Works, sent to me by the late Lieutenant Carroll, R.E.,
whom I have already mentioned. The systematic improvement of rivers by
the lock and dam method, as in the Thames and other small streams, is
hardly applicable to such rivers as the Ganges and Indus, except at a
cost which puts it altogether out of the question. It is greatly to
be regretted that it is so, for the navigable capabilities of Indian
rivers are far inferior to what we should suppose, judging from their
length and size; much inferior to those of America, for example, though
the Mississippi has much the same general characteristics as the Ganges.

During the rainy season, Inundations in the lower part of the course of
many of these Indian rivers often extend far inland; the delta of the
Ganges is, in fact, a vast sheet of water at that time of year, and in
the dry season it is an enormous jungle intersected with watercourses,
and inhabited only by tigers, snakes, and other wild animals, with the
exception of a few wretched fishermen or woodcutters.

Higher up the country, again, rivers, such as the Damooda, are
restrained within artificial embankments, which, unfortunately, have
not been systematically planned, but have been erected from time to
time by the different villages threatened with inundation along its
course. There are often many miles of such embankment (or levees, as
they are termed in America,) under a young engineer’s charge, and
very anxious work it is, as he has to guard a long line from the
attack of an insidious foe, often with a very imperfect garrison.
Such embankments as these are always constructed of earth, and when
consolidated by time and covered with grass, a very thin earthen bank
will successfully resist until it is absolutely overtopped, while new
earthwork of twice and three times the sectional area will be soaked
through and breached readily. Another source of danger arises from
rats and other vermin, which perforate your embankments in hundreds of
places.

Rivers are also trained, either to prevent inundations or to improve
their navigation, by the use of Spurs or groins, which are much
employed in India. They are generally run out from the shore at an
angle of 45° with the current, so as to deflect it towards the opposite
side when needful. By a series of such spurs, a long line of bank may
be protected, and a corresponding series on the opposite side may often
be necessary to give the stream a set in the right direction. Such
spurs may be built of stone where there is any, but in India are more
often constructed of a double row of piling, filled in with fascines;
the nose of the spur is often revetted with sand-bags. Sometimes ropes
are anchored, and trees or brushwood tied along the rope, by which the
surface current is acted upon sufficiently for the purpose. In the
Markunda River, near Umballa, well-cylinders were sunk down at a great
expense, to act as anchors, and were connected by stout iron chains or
wire cables, to which trees and branches were attached. The advantage
of spurs founded on the bottom over floating spurs or breakwaters is
chiefly in the great deposits of silt which occur both above and below
the latter, and which soon form an adequate protection to them from the
stream.

For all this kind of work it is impossible to lay down any fixed rules;
experience and local knowledge are our chief guides, though it may be
said generally that rivers are like women—more easily led than driven!

I have now run over—very hastily and imperfectly, it is true—the chief
branches of civil engineering which those going to India may be called
upon to engage in. There are several other important branches, such as
Lighthouses, Harbour works, Gas, Water, and Sewage works, on which I
have not touched, both because you will rarely have anything to do with
them, and because there is very little that is _special_ about them so
far as India is concerned. But before I conclude, I wish to give you a
brief account of the Indian Survey, partly because the results of that
survey are of great importance to the engineer, and because many of our
own officers are employed in it.

The _Indian Survey Department_ is divided into the three branches of
the Great Trigonometrical, the Topographical, and the Revenue, Survey
branches. To understand something of the work done by the first, it is
necessary to sketch briefly the history of its operations. It was in
the year 1800 that Major Lambton commenced to run a line of triangles
across India from Madras to the west coast, with a view simply to a
local survey. In the course of this work it was discovered that there
was an error of no less than 40 miles in the assumed breadth of the
peninsula at that point. The original Base Line was measured near
Madras, and a base of verification at Bangalore, and from this latter
base a line of triangles was subsequently carried down south to Cape
Comorin, and up north to Dera, 40 miles from Roorkee. This line,
carried along the centre of the continent, formed the Great Indian Arc,
and is the largest arc of longitude ever yet measured on the earth’s
surface. Another great line of triangles has since been carried from
Kurrachee, in the west, to Calcutta, in the east, bases being measured
at each end. From Kurrachee, again, the Indus series of triangles
extends to Attock, where another base was measured, and from Attock
another chain comes down the Punjab back to Dera. There are several
other series of triangles with which I need not trouble you.

In the earlier days of the survey, the instruments used, especially
those for base measurement, were necessarily imperfect, but Colonel
Colby’s compensation apparatus, used in the Irish Ordnance survey, was
afterwards sent out to India, and two 36-inch theodolites, made by
Troughton and Simms, which, I believe, are the very best instruments
ever turned out. Subsequently, several 24-inch theodolites on the
Everest pattern were sent out, besides a first-rate Zenith Sector, and
many other instruments; and all the old work has been re-measured,
while fresh series of triangles are yearly being added. The published
results of the work show that it is singularly accurate, and may bear
comparison, in this respect, with our own or the Russian survey, while
in the magnitude of its operations it surpasses both. I should mention
that for the principal triangulation stations in the plains, high
towers of masonry are built, from which the angles are taken. The
stations on the peaks of hills are marked by small pillars of stone.

Besides the ordinary triangulation, and the determination of the
Latitudes and Longitudes of the chief stations by careful Astronomical
observations, a series of very valuable Pendulum observations has been
lately executed for the Royal Society at intervals along the Great Arc,
the object being to determine the effects of local attraction on the
plumb-line caused by the great mountain chain of the Himalayahs. It was
while engaged in these that Major Basevi, Royal Engineers, died alone
in the solitudes of Thibet.

In addition to the above, a very extensive series of Spirit-Levelling
operations has been undertaken within the last few years by the
Survey Department, the object of which is to have an independent mode
of determining the height of the principal stations in the interior
above the mean sea-level at Kurrachee, and to establish a series of
Bench Marks all over the country, by which the levels taken for any
engineering project may be referred to the Kurrachee datum.

Major Lambton was succeeded by the late Sir George Everest and Sir
Andrew Scott Waugh, F.R.S., now retired, both of the late Bengal
Engineers. The present Superintendent of the Great Trigonometrical
Survey is Colonel J. T. Walker, F.R.S., late of the Bombay Engineers,
who some years ago executed an admirable military survey of the
Trans-Indus frontier under circumstances of great difficulty and peril.
His second in command is Major Montgomerie, F.R.S., late Bengal
Engineers, who received a gold medal from the Royal Geographical
Society for his admirable survey of the kingdom of Cashmere, one of the
completest and most difficult surveys ever executed. Among the other
subordinates is Lieutenant Herschel, F.R.S., late Bengal Engineers, a
son of the great astronomer, and already well known to the scientific
world for his spectroscopic observations on the last two total eclipses
of the sun.

The Topographical Survey is confined to those large tracts of country
which, from their hilly and jungly configuration, would not pay to
be surveyed in the elaborate manner employed in the plains. The
instruments used for the triangulation are 7-inch Everest theodolites,
the stations being always connected with the most convenient points
of the Great Trigonometrical Survey. The details of the country are
filled in by the Plane Table, which is similar to the sketch block,
and though not so portable, is more convenient and perhaps admits of
greater accuracy. Many very beautiful maps have been turned out by this
Department, the head of which for some years was Colonel Robinson, late
Bengal Engineers, one of the most accomplished military draughtsmen in
the service, now Director-General of the Indian Telegraph Department.

The Revenue Survey is, as its name denotes, the survey of land for the
purpose of revenue assessment. It takes up the chief points determined
by the Great Trigonometrical Survey, runs secondary lines of triangles
where necessary, and fills in details by the Gale Traverse system,
which is specially adapted to a flat, open country. The Plane Table
supplements the Traverse work, and the result is a series of maps
which, for minute detail, are scarcely equalled by the 25-inch English
Ordnance maps, for every field is determined and even the nature of the
soil and the crop laid down.

The Revenue Survey is presided over by the Surveyor-General of India,
Colonel Thuillier, F.R.S., late Bengal Artillery, who has for many
years devoted himself specially to this work, and to whom India is
indebted for many improvements.

And now, Gentlemen, I have finished my lectures, and would fain hope
that they have given you half as much pleasure in listening to them as
I have had in preparing them. The field was so vast that I could easily
have extended their length and their number; but my object has been
rather to awaken your interest and stimulate your curiosity than to
supersede your reading.

Footnotes:

[A] I remember a native’s answer to a remark of mine, which shows
that there are always two sides to a question, even a question of
improvement. His Persian wheel, near to which my tent had been pitched,
kept me awake all night with its abominable creaking, and I asked him
in the morning why he didn’t use grease to stop the noise? He said, “I
am accustomed to it, and if the creaking ceases I wake up; I know the
wheel has stopped because the bullock-driver has gone to sleep, and I
go out and beat him.”

[B] The Grand Trunk Road having been first metalled with kunkur when
Lord William Bentinck was Governor-General, that distinguished nobleman
was called by some facetious engineer, William the Kunkurer.

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  Residences, Schools, Village Churches, etc., etc._ By W. YOUNG.

  Just published, 8vo, with Plates, 5_s._

  _On the Construction of Catch-water Reservoirs in Mountain Districts,
  for the Supply of Towns, or for other Purposes._ By C. H. BELOE,
  Author of the ‘Handbook of the Liverpool Waterworks.’

  Just published, 8vo, cloth, Illustrated with Coloured Plates, 16_s._

  _Vazeeri Rupi, the Silver Country of the Vazeers, in Kulu: its
  Beauties, Antiquities, and Silver Mines, including a Trip over the
  lower Himalayah range and Glaciers._ By J. CALVERT, F.G.S., Mem.
  Inst. C.E.

  London: E. & F. N. SPON, 48, Charing Cross.
  New York: 446, Broome Street.