had to go Home on leave 'exhausted by unremitting work and anxiety'; and for the next two years his place was taken by Captain (afterwards General) C. A. Orr, R.E., who had from the first been his most successful lieutenant and to whom much of the credit for the completion of the undertaking is due.
Next year (1849) the whole of the Vijésvaram section was built to a height of nine feet under circumstances of great difficulty. The work could not be begun until February 10th owing to want of funds. During its progress a sudden rise in the river breached it, and extensive temporary dams had to be erected to turn the river away from it. It was completed by the end of May. The season's operations also included the repair of 80 yards of the Maddúr section, the raising of the whole section by one and a half feet, the completion of the head and under-sluices and locks both at Dowlaishweram and Vijésvaram, of the under-sluice and wing walls of the Rail section and of about 50 yards at each end of this section, and the lengthening of the Dowlaishweram section by some 250 yards.
At the beginning of the following year (1850) the only outlet for the whole stream of the Gódávari was down the Ráli branch, the section across which alone remained to be completed. A temporary dam of loose stone had been made across this in 1848 and strengthened in 1849 to prevent the stream from cutting too deep a channel in the bed of the river; but the water escaped both through and over this, and it became necessary to make it water-tight and high enough to turn the stream down the Dowlaishweram and Vijésvaram branches, and through the head and under-sluices in them. This would have been no easy matter at any time, but now considerably more water than usual was passing down owing to heavy rain in Hyderabad and Nagpore.
An exciting struggle with the river ensued. In February about 50 yards of the temporary dam was swept away, and no sooner was the damage repaired than 80 yards more was washed down stream. This branch was nearly closed when the river asserted itself and widened it to 80 yards again, surging through the narrow opening between 20 and 30 feet deep. With immense difficulty this breach was at length closed and the river turned aside on the 23rd April, and before the end of the next month the Ráli section was completed to a height of 10½ feet. The head-sluice and lock on this section were built the same year, and the great anicut was thus at last an accomplished fact.
Though the battle was now won, the difficulties were far from over. On the 9th June 1850 the river began to rise
