Ganges Canal - A Disquisition on the Heads of the Ganges of Jumna Canals, North-Western Provinces, in Reply to Strictures #260894

I propose in the following pages to enter in some detail, on the J umna and Ganges rivers, as connected with the irrigation canals in the north-western Provinces — more especially on the measures which have been adopted of drawing a supply for their maintenance; and to explain why, in defiance of the difficulties encountered in con tending with mountain torrents, this supply has been taken, both by ancient and modern engineers, from the higher regions where the beds of the rivers consist of boulders and shingle situated on heavy slopes; and why, by avoiding the dificulties above-mentioned, the canal heads have not been placed at points lower down the course of the rivers, where the slopes are less, and where the beds of the rivers consist entirely of sand.