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About The Book: The main point at issue discussed in this essay, is whether, as an engineering project, the head of the Ganges Canal should have been led off above the commencement of the high land of the Northern Doab, where the river runs upon shingle on a high incline ; or below it, by the construction of a dam across the river, where it flows in a depressed trough, upon a sandy bed. The former plan was adopted by me, and although it has been assailed by Sir Arthur Cotton, I hold that it was the only sound one. But in order to justify it, I have been compelled to enter into minute and tedious details regarding the surface contour of the country ; the slopes of the river beds in relation to the higher levels and slope of the land ; and the lines of drainage, by which the Doab is longitudinally intersected. About The Author : Col. Sir Proby Thomas Cautley (1802-1871), KCB, English engineer and palaeontologist, born in Stratford St Mary, Suffolk, is best known for conceiving and supervising the construction of the Ganges canal during East India Company rule in India. Cautley's writings indicated his large and varied interests. He wrote on a submerged city, twenty feet underground, in the Doab: on the coal and lignite in the Himalayas; on gold washings in the Siwaliks, between the Sutlej and the Yamuna; on a new species of snake; on the mastodons of the Siwaliks and on the manufacture of tar. General Sir Arthur Thomas Cotton (1803-1899) KCSI was a British general and irrigation engineer. Cotton devoted his life to the construction of irrigation and navigation canals throughout British India. He helped many people by building the Dowleswaram Barrage, the Prakasam Barrage and the Kurnool Cuddappah Canal.