place of their own in which to assemble. It has a projecting stone balcony at each end, and the windows are filled with stone tracery. The cost thus far has been Rs. 4,000. The room over the opposite gate will be taken in hand next year.
The embankment was not quite finished on the 19th September 1880, when the heavy rain occurred which caused the fatal landslip at Naini Tál. The river rose suddenly from 13 to nearly 21 feet in height, the greatest recorded height for any previous flood being 16½ feet, and in order to save the bridge a breach was made in the road on the other side of the stream. This was rapidly widened by the force of the torrent into a chasm three furlongs broad. But for the embankment, the roadway to the west of the bridge must also have gone, and the greater part of the town would then have been destroyed. Even as it was, much damage was caused by the back-water which spread up into the streets from the lower bend of the river; exposure to the direct forces of the current would have had much more serious results. An insignificant rivulet mąde its way over the embankment through the spaces left for the gateways; but the masonry walls-though the mortar was scarcely dry-stood the shock well, and fully justified the cost of their construction even from a purely utilitarian point of view. It may also be mentioned that the shops let some for Rs. 4 and some for Rs. 5 a month each, which gives a return of over 6 per cent. on the outlay.
On emerging from the low land, the embankment is continued towards the west, first at the same width of 150 feet through a bazar, in which the frontage of the shops has been remodelled by the proprietor Munshi Gopál Ráe,[1] so as to assimilate it in appearance with the Municipal work, and then as an ordinary street till it reaches the Collector's house and grounds, which are the beginning of the European quarter. At this
- ↑ Munshi Gopál Ráe is a native of the town, where he has a fine house and owns a large amount of property, but being in Government service—he is now a Deputy Collector in the Gonda district—he is seldom resident. He is perhaps the only person who has been a sufferer by the recent improvements. Before the shops on the embankment were built, his were always let at a high rent—though they were very wretched places—Now most of them are unoccupied, though the rent has been greatly reduced and they have been put in much better order than ever before. However, he bears his loss with singular good-temper, and seems honestly to consider himself compensated by the improved appearance of the town, where he hopes to spend his old age and where his family has been settled for many generations.
