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 his qualifications for the work which he had left, by visiting such hydraulic works as could then be seen in Great Britain, while on his way back to India he examined the irrigation works in Lombardy and Piedmont and the barrage works then in progress on the Nile. After his return to India in 1848, when he assumed the office of director of canals in the N.-W. Provinces, which had been constituted in his absence, the canal made rapid progress under the active encouragement given to Cautley both by the lieutenant-governor, Mr. Thomason, and by the governor-general, Lord Dalhousie. It was opened on 8 April 1854, and in the following month Cautley left India, receiving on the occasion of his embarkation a salute from the guns of Fort William, which had been ordered by the governor-general in special recognition of the high value attached to Cautley's great work. The city of Calcutta presented Cautley with a memorial and placed his bust in the town hall, and the engineers who had been employed under him on the canal gave him a piece of plate. On reaching England he was created a K.C.B., and in 1858 he was selected to fill one of the seats in the new council of India, which he retained until 1868. In the latter part of his life Cautley became involved in a professional controversy with General Sir Arthur Cotton, the eminent hydraulic engineer, to whose genius the south of India is indebted for some of its most important irrigation works. The main point in dispute was whether the head of the Ganges canal should have been fixed where the river, with a shingle bed and a high incline, quitted the Sub-Himalaya, or much lower down, where it flows in a depressed alluvial trough of comparatively small slope. The former course, adopted by Cautley, was supposed to afford a better base for the works regulating the supply, but involved crossing, at great cost, numerous torrents similar to those already referred to. The latter course involved the foundation of the works on sand and a considerable length of very deep cutting before the surface of the plain to be irrigated was reached. Subsequent experience, derived from the construction of dams built on sites such as Sir Arthur Cotton contemplated, across the Ganges for the lower Ganges canal, and across the Jumna for the Agra canal, appears to have shown that the view of the latter was correct in principle, but that he considerably underestimated what would have been the cost of the work if carried out on his plan. The most serious fault of the canal was excess of slope, and to rectify this parts of it were remodelled at a cost (which, however, included extensions of work necessary in any case) of fifty-five lakhs of rupees, the original cost of the work having been 217 lakhs. In submitting the plans and estimates for the improvements the government of India remarked that, ‘considering the unprecedented character of the Ganges canal project and its great magnitude,’ they did not think that ‘the credit of its designer was really diminished by what had occurred.’ They believed that ‘very few engineering works of equal novelty of design and magnitude would be found to bear the test of actual experience with a more favourable result.’ ‘Whatever,’ they added, ‘be the present ascertained defects of the Ganges canal, the claims of Sir Proby Cautley to the consideration of the government of India for his eminent services are, in our estimation, in no way diminished, and his title to honour as an engineer still remains of the highest order’ (Despatch from the Governor-general of India in Council to the Secretary of State for India, 1 March 1865).

In addition to his labours as an engineer Cautley rendered distinguished service to geological and palæontological science by his explorations in the Siválik range, which is rich in fossil remains. His researches were chiefly carried on in association with Dr. Hugh Falconer, at that time in charge of the botanical garden at Saháranpur, and, their joint discoveries attracting attention in Europe, they were awarded by the Geological Society in 1837 the Woollaston medal in duplicate. It is stated that Cautley's collection of fossils presented by him to the British Museum filled 214 chests, averaging in weight 4 cwt. each. Cautley was a frequent contributor of papers both to the Bengal Asiatic Society and to the Geological Society of London. The following may be mentioned: In the ‘Asiatic Researches,’ vol. xvi. (1828), notice of ‘Coal and Lignite in the Himálaya;’ vol. xix. pt. i. (1836), ‘On the Fossil Crocodile of the Siváliks;’ ‘On the Fossil Ghariál of the Siváliks.’ In ‘Journal As. Soc. Bengal,’ vol. i. (1832), ‘On Gypsum of the Himálaya;’ iii. (1833), ‘On Discovery of an Ancient City near Behut in the Doáb;’ iv. (1835), ‘On Gold-washings of the Gúntí River;’ ‘On a New Species of Snake discovered in the Doáb;’ v. (1836), ‘On the Teeth of the Siválik Mastodon à dents étroites;’ ‘On the Mastodons of the Siváliks;’ vi. (1837), ‘On a Siválik Ruminant allied to the Giraffidæ;’ viii. (1839), ‘On the Use of Wells in Foundations, as practised by the Natives of the Northern Doáb;’ ix. pt. i. (1840), ‘On the Fossil Camelidæ of the Siváliks;’ xi. (1842), ‘On the Proposed For-