The enlarged contour map of the distributary area shows, among other things, the boundaries of the lands belonging to each village. Generally a watercourse supplies water to only one village. When, however, a village is far from the distributary, its watercourse has to pass for a long distance through other villages and it would be wasteful of water to have two separate watercourses. In such cases one watercourse may serve two villages or more. When a village is near to the distributary and its land extends for a long distance parallel to the distributary, it may have several watercourses for itself alone. A watercourse can generally be most conveniently dug along the boundary line of two villages, or there may be some other line which the people particularly desire.[15] Subject to, or modified by, these considerations a watercourse is designed to run on high ground like a distributary. [15] They also frequently wish the “chak”--the area irrigated by a watercourse--so arranged that two men who are “enemies” shall not be included in the same “chak.” This condition can be complied with only up to a certain point. Arrangements may be modified but not in such a way as to upset the proper rules. [Illustration: CONTOUR MAP (PART) AND LINE OF DISTRIBUTARY. The scale is 1 inch to 2 miles. The contour lines at 1 foot intervals are shown dotted, the roads by double lines. The line of the distributary, in order to follow the ridge of the country, would have gone more to the left of the plan near the village. The shifting of the line to the right brings it nearer to the centre of the irrigated tract--supposed to be the whole area shown--and enables a single bridge to be built at the bifurcation of the two roads. Suitable lines for main watercourses are shown in thin firm lines. It is assumed that the command is sufficient to enable the watercourses to run off at the considerable angles shown. _To face page 63_] The great object is to reduce the total length of channels, _i.e._, minors and watercourses. No watercourse can be allowed to run alongside of or near to another. It may run alongside a canal or distributary when really necessary to gain command but not otherwise. The longer the watercourse the larger the chak. The discharge of an outlet may be anything up to 4 or 5 c. feet per second. This limits the size of a chak. If a chak is too big it can be split up or a minor can be designed. Very small chaks are to be avoided, but it is difficult to fix a minimum size. The irrigation boundary of the distributary, as fixed in the project, is shown on the map but in practice it will not be exactly followed. For various reasons the boundaries of a chak may run somewhat outside it or stop short of it.