matter of temperature. In camp, away from Quetta and all means of
procuring supplies on the spot, he writes under date the 2nd of April,
1889: "For the past fortnight I have had a rough time of it with rain,
wind, and haze. Since yesterday there has been a change for the better,
so now I hope to push along with my observations. Just at present I am
in a low valley, and consequently the heat is somewhat trying, but in
another fortnight I expect I shall be complaining of it being a _little
bit_ too cold, at an elevation of 10,000 and odd. I have little or no
news to give, as it is now some time since I saw a pale face, but
somehow or another solitude has its charms for me." The writer of that
letter soon after applied for three months' leave, having experienced
broken health for some time previously, in constant returns of fever,
but owing to the delay that occurs in getting post letters despatched
from the frontier away from posting stations, and the circumlocution
which is a feature in all great departments of State, McNair did not
get his leave sanctioned till sometime in July, 1889, and he was not
able to start from Quetta for his mountain home in Mussooree, a
distance of several days' trying journey, until the early days of
August. The fond hearts of a mother and sister that awaited him there
had no knowledge of the dangerous character of the fever from which he
had been suffering for nearly a fortnight before he started from
Quetta.

Within a very few days after his arrival at Mussooree, the doctors held
a consultation over his case, as the fever could not be subdued by any
treatment tried, and then the truth that it was typhoid had to be
acknowledged. All that medical skill and affectionate nursing of
devoted relatives, friends, and a qualified nurse, could do towards
saving the patient was done, and hopes were entertained of recovery
till almost the last; but three days before the fatal end, hemorrhage