triangles from the Indus, at Dehra Grhazi Khan to Quetta, which
occupied him to the close of his career. His ability as an observer,
his readiness of resource under unusual difficulties, and his power of
attaching the frontier people to him personally, have been just as
conspicuous throughout this duty as were his energy and success as a
geographical topographer. Apart from his departmental career, he has
won a lasting name as an explorer by his adventurous journey to
Kafiristan in 1883, when on leave. It may be fairly claimed for him
that he was the first European officer who set foot in that
impracticable country, and he is still the best authority on many of
the routes leading to it. His services to geographical science were
recognised by the Royal Geographical Society, who awarded him the
Murchison grant, and there can be little doubt that a distinguished
career was still before him when he was suddenly cut off in the prime
of his life."

To those who know what an Indian Department means, such language of
eulogy, no less truthful than graceful, from so respected a functionary
as the Surveyor-General of India, who knew Mr. McNair personally, will
carry a weight far beyond the official recognition of that deceased
officer's worth to his department. The comparative neglect of a great
scientific department of State, such as the Indian Survey Department
undoubtedly is, as a mere ornamental section of the huge and complicated
machinery of that gigantic Empire called India, is but too often repeated
by a department and its official heads in regarding the merits of the
living and the dead who sacrifice their lives to its achievements; but
in this one instance, at least, it cannot be said that the head of a
department fell beneath his opportunities for doing himself and his
subordinate due honour. It is not always from official neglect, or human
pride and indifference, that this want of sympathy for human labour and