produced, would be monuments of his personal assiduity. His principal efforts, however, were put forth for the sake of the Ganges Canal.
Nowadays the Ganges Canal, as a fait accompli, is one of the wonders — it might be depicted as one of the beauties and glories — of the world. In its special line it has not been equalled by anything ancient or modern anywhere. Within twenty miles from its head at Hardwár to Rúrki, are to be found more hydraulic works of magnitude and difficulty than in any similar place on the earth. The total length of the main trunks amounts to nearly a thousand miles, that of the branches to two thousand. The canal itself over a hundred feet broad, its banks fringed and lined with shady avenues, affords a spectacle as noble as it is picturesque. By this channel the waters of the Upper Ganges are carried off to fertilize the Indian Mesopotamia, that is, the country between the Ganges and the Jumna. It irrigates some two millions of acres. In the heart and centre of these Provinces it bars the way against the gaunt famine that once stalked without hindrance through the land. On the whole it is one of the chief ornaments and monuments of British rule in India. But those who admire the grand achievement to-day, little think, perhaps, of the day of small beginnings, as it was in Thomason's time. The organization of the project, its elaboration, its completion rested with Sir Proby Cautley, the Engineer, who indeed stands very high among the benefactors of northern India.
