ORISSA. 461 main road (namely, the Grand Trunk Road running from Calcutta to Madras) passes through the alluvial region of the Province, with a branch from Cuttack to Purí. A fair-weather road joins Cuttack with Sambalpur in the Central Provinces, and another road from Midnapur to Sambalpur affords transit through the region of the Tributary Hill States. A railway is now (1885) under survey from Benares to Cuttack and Puri, passing on its way through Chutia Nágpur, and designed for the benefit of the enormous crowds of pilgrims which flock to the Hindu shrines of Benares, Gya, and Purí. The distance from Mughal Sarai, near Benares, where the railway will start, to Puri, the Orissa terminus, is 567 miles. This line will be of especial importance as a famine protective work. At present Orissa is almost isolated from the world, being dependent for communication with the north, south, and west on bullock tracks, and with the east on the seaports which are unsuitable for ships of any considerable tonnage. The means of rapidly throwing provisions into the Province, in case of famine, are inadequate. Vessels must unload into lighters or small country craft, of which the supply along the coast is small; and during the monsoon or rainy period, the unloading is both difficult and dangerous. The canal systein of Orissa, regarded as a means of communication, can carry comparatively small quantities of grain, and that slowly. The High Level Canal was originally designed to provide a navigable trade route between Cuttack and Calcutta. 230 miles. The Orissa has not, however, been carried beyond the river Salandi in Balasor District, where the Canal ends opposite Bhadrakh town. The section intended to connect the Orissa Canal with the Midnapur Canal has, for a tinie at least, been abandoned. The Kendrápára Canal is navigable only from Cuttack (False Point) to Mársághái. The Táldandá Canal, intended for both navigation and irrigation, connects the city of Cuttack with the main branch of the Mahanadi within tidal range (52 miles). The Machhgaon Canal connects Cuttack with the mouth of the Devi (53 miles). Its chief purpose is irrigation. A general view of the Orissa Canal system, its irrigation capabilities and financial aspects, will be found in the article on the MAHANADI River, ante, Vol. ix, pp. 160-163. Education.—Education is satisfactorily advanced in British Orissa, and one boy out of every three of school-going age is at school. The number of primary schools in the Orissa Division in 1883-84 was 8920, with 104,953 pupils. The indigenous schools numbered 73, with 958 pupils. The payments-by-results system of State aid was introduced into Balasor District in 1877, into Cuttack in 1878, and into Purí in 1879; and has resulted in the absorption of the indigenous institutions of the territory. Under this system, each District has its staff of inspecting
