1 POPULATION, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS. 87
2 part of the stream have been supplied, the
3 surplus should be again turned into, and per-
4 mitted to flow in its bed, to satisfy others lower
5 down, whether for irrigation or the consumption
6 of the people and cattle, in the arid districts.
7 The lesser currents do not swell in the hot
8 months, as is the case with the larger rivers,
9 which debouche from the Himalayas, and are fed
10 in warm weather by the liquefaction of the snow :
11 the supply of water in them is hence so scanty
12 as scarcely to administer to the necessities of
13 those near their heads, whilst the distress of
14 others, further down the stream, induces them to
15 become more clamorous as the quantity de-
16 creases, and ultimately stops short of them.
17 " Bunds, or dams, are always constructed,
18 after the rains have ceased, to raise the water
19 to a level with the surface, and to render it
20 applicable to the purposes of irrigation. Were
21 a total prohibition of this beneficial practice
22 to be enacted, large tracts, on many estates,
23 through which streams flow, in deep channels,
24 would become uncultivated; and the villages
25 depopulated, to the serious loss of the proprie-
26 tors and the ruin of their Zemindars. With
27 the view of relieving the deficiencies experienced
28 from . the want of the fluid in the arid districts
29 lower down, a substitute for the dam might be
30 found in a hydraulic wheel of simple construe-