“Proby Cautley”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

Proby Cautley was educated at Charterhouse School (1813–18), followed by the East India Company's Military Seminary at Addiscombe (1818–19). After less than a year there, he was commissioned second lieutenant and dispatched to India, joining the Bengal Presidency artillery in Calcutta. In 1825, he assisted Captain Robert Smith, the engineer in charge of constructing the Eastern Yamuna canal, also called the Doab canal. He was in charge of this canal for 12 years between 1831 and 1843. By 1836, he was Superintendent-General of Canals.

Ganges canal

In 1840 Cautley reported on the proposed Ganges canal, for the irrigation of the country between the rivers Ganges, Hindan and Yamuna (then called the Jumna), which was his most important work. Cautley began working towards his dream of building a Ganges canal, and spent six months walking and riding through the area taking each measurement himself. He was confident that a 500-kilometre canal was feasible. There were many obstacles and objections to his project, mostly financial, but Cautley persevered and eventually persuaded the British East India Company to back him. This project was sanctioned in 1841, but the work was not begun till 1843, and even then Cautley found himself hampered in its execution by the opposition of Lord Ellenborough.

Digging of the canal began in April 1842.^[3] Cautley had to make his own bricks, brick kiln and mortar. Initially, he was opposed by the Hindu priests at Haridwar, who felt that the waters of the holy river Ganges would be imprisoned; but Cautley pacified them by agreeing to leave a gap in the dam from where the water could flow unchecked. He further appeased the priests by undertaking the repair of bathing ghats along the river. He also inaugurated the dam by the worship of Lord Ganesh, the god of good beginnings. Construction of the dam faced many complications, including the problem of the mountainous streams that threatened the canal. Near Roorkee, the land fell away sharply and Cautley had to build an aqueduct to carry the canal for half a kilometre. As a result, at Roorkee the canal is 25 metres higher than the original river. From 1845 to 1848 he was absent in England owing to ill-health, and on his return to India he was appointed director of canals in the North-Western Provinces. When the canal formally opened on 8 April 1854,^[4] its main channel was {{convert|348|mi|km}} long, its branches {{convert|306|mi|km}} long and the various tributaries over {{convert|3000|mi|km}} long. Over {{convert|767000|acre|km2|-1}} in 5,000 villages were irrigated.

He was also instrumental in the establishment of the Roorkee college, named the Thomason College of Civil Engineering in 1854 and now known as IIT Roorkee. One of the twelve student hostels of IIT Roorkee is named after him.^[5]

Fossil work

Cautley was actively involved in Dr Hugh Falconer's fossil expeditions in the Siwalik Hills. He presented a large collection of mammalian fossils, including hippopotamus and crocodile fossils indicating that the area had once been a swampland. Other animal remains that he found here included the sabre-toothed tiger, Elephis ganesa (an elephant with a trunk length of about 10{{1/2}} feet), the bones of a fossil ostrich and the remains of giant cranes and tortoises.

He also contributed numerous memoirs, some written in collaboration with Falconer, to the Proceedings of the Bengal Asiatic Society and the Geological Society of London on the geology and fossil remains of the Sivalik Hills.

Writings

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.

Awards and honours

Death

After the Ganges canal was opened in 1854 he went back to England, where he was made KCB, and from 1858 to 1868 he occupied a seat on the Council of India. He died at Sydenham, near London, on 25 January 1871.

Works

Notes

1. ^[https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=QP8u1RHKQAUC&pg=PA259&lpg=PA259&dq=Proby+Cautley+stratford+st+mary&source=bl&ots=VHF7UV7EaF&sig=80vGa29BwdizE_T0ellypMi-A0U&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiu6dPjo4zQAhWF7yYKHR3VBLgQ6AEIIDAB#v=onepage&q=Proby%20Cautley%20stratford%20st%20mary&f=false History of Physical Anthropology - Frank Spencer - Google Books] Retrieved 2016-11-03.
2. ^¹Stone (2002) p.18
3. ^Upper Ganges Canal The Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 12, p. 138.
4. ^{{Cite book|url=http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c2697499|title=Report on the Ganges canal works:from their commencement until the opening of the canal in 1854.|last=Cautley|first=Proby Thomas|date=1860-01-01|publisher=London}}
5. ^{{cite web|title=Cautley Bhawan|url=http://www.iitr.ac.in/campus_life/pages/Hostels+Cautley_Bhawan.html|publisher=IIT Roorkee|accessdate=11 October 2013}}
6. ^{{citation |last=Bream |first=Roland |year=2013 |title=An overview of Cautleya |journal=The Plantsman |series=New Series |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=122–125 }}

References