The rest houses for the use of officials on tour are generally at intervals of about 8 to 14 miles. There is generally a rest house near to a large regulator and frequently there is one near to a small regulator. This facilitates inspection work and discharge observations and it saves money, because the house can be looked after by one of the regulating staff. Not infrequently the house is placed just too far away from the regulator. Similarly if a rest house is near a railway station it should be within a quarter of a mile of it--always provided that this does not bring it too near to villages or huts--and not a mile or more away as is sometimes the case. It is also a mistake to place a rest house off the line of channel unless perhaps when it is on a district road which crosses the channel. CHAPTER III. THE WORKING OF A CANAL. 1. =Preliminary Remarks.= A large canal is under a Superintending Engineer and it often constitutes his sole charge. It consists generally of three to five “divisions,” each under an Executive Engineer. A division has two to four subdivisions, each under a Subdivisional Officer. A subdivision is divided, for purpose of engineering work and maintenance, into several, generally three or four, sections, each consisting of some 20 miles of canal and some 40 miles of distributary, and being in charge of a native overseer or suboverseer, and for purposes of water distribution and revenue, into a few sections each having, perhaps, some 30,000 acres of irrigation and being in charge of a native zilladar. As far as possible the boundaries of divisions and subdivisions are co-terminous with those of the branches of the canal. A distributary is always wholly within a subdivision. At every regulator there is a gauge reader, who, supplied when necessary with permanent assistants, sees to the regulation of the supply. If there is a telegraph office at the regulator the telegraph “signaller” may have charge of the regulation. The zilladar has a staff of some ten or twelve patwaris, who record in books the fields watered and who are in touch with the people and know when the demand for water is great, moderate or small, and for what kind of crops it is needed. In each division there is generally a Deputy Collector who is a native official, ranking as a Subdivisional Officer. His duty is to specially supervise the revenue staff in the whole division. Both he and the Subdivisional Officer have magisterial powers which are exercised in trying petty cases connected with the canal.