He had been twenty-two years in the Survey Department, and had rendered
signal service, especially during the Afghan War of 1878-79. In the
disguise of a native doctor he made a journey into Kafiristan in 1883,
and this achievement gained for him the Murchison Grant of the Royal
Geographical Society. This expedition was, up to the time,
unparalleled. Mr. McNair ascended to the Dora Pass over the Hindoo
Khoosh Mountains, which he found to be over 14,000 feet high, but with
an easy ascent, quite practicable for laden animals.




_Extract from Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society for
October, 1889._

Obituary.

W.W. McNAIR.--We are sorry to have to record the death of this
distinguished member of the Indian Survey, who has died at Mussooree of
typhoid fever. He had been twenty-two years in the Survey Department,
and had done good service, particularly during the Afghan war of
1878-79, when his work lay along the valley of the Kabul river, and
during the last two years, in which he has been extending a series of
triangles from the British frontier at Dera, Ghazi Khan, by the direct
route across the Suliman Mountains to Quetta and the Khojak Amran. But
his most conspicuous piece of work was his journey (in the disguise of
a native doctor) into Kafiristan in 1883, an achievement which gained
for him the Murchison Grant of the Royal Geographical Society, and
which stands quite alone, as unless Russian explorers have recently
succeeded in entering the country, there is no record of any other