topography of the lower borderland, and geographical darkness shrouded nearly the whole line of frontier mountains. The hostility of the border people had always been such that it was a matter of considerable risk to approach them, but the temper of the tribes was then rapidly changing with the times, and McNair rapidly succeeded in establishing himself on a friendly footing with frontier robber chiefs, whose assistance was invaluable in arranging short excursions across the line, by means of which he was able to complete a fairly accurate map of most of the border country. No work that ever he accomplished has been of more value to the Government of India than this unobtrusive frontier mapping. It was whilst he was thus occupied between Peshawur and Dera Ismail Khan that he made the acquaintance of certain influential men of the Kaken Khel, who offered to see him safely through the dangerous districts outlying Kaffirstan, and give him the opportunity of being the first European to set his foot in that land of romance. The snow-capped summits of some of the more southerly peaks of Kaffirstan had been seen and fixed by McNair during the progress of the Afghan campaign, and it had ever been a dream with him to reach those mighty spurs, and torn those peaks to account by using them as the basis of a topographical map of the country. He did reach them, as the records of the R.G.S. sufficiently show, and he may fairly claim to be the first Englishman to lift even a corner of the veil of mystery which has ever shrouded that inaccessible country so far as its topographical conformation is concerned. This excursion won for him the Murchison Grant of the Society, and established his position as a leading practical geographer. For the last few years of his life he has been almost incessantly occupied in the rough work of frontier surveying, which his knowledge of frontier people and power of winning their confidence and help especially fitted him to undertake. At the time of his death he was employed in the Baluchistan Survey party in the completion of a triangulation series which should carry the great Indian system to the Kojak range, and furnish a scientific and highly accurate base for future extension into Afghanistan. This was a duty which severely taxed even his vigorous constitution. It involved incessant labour in examining lofty mountain peaks in order to select suitable sites for stations, and subsequently days and nights of anxious watching during the progress of the observations, whilst food and water (when snow was not lying on the ground) were scarce, and mists and clouds hung round the mountains. No doubt it tried him hard, and when typhoid attacked him at Quetta he seemed unable to make a good fight for his life. He was able, however, to reach Mussoorie, where he died on the 13th August, leaving a gap in the Department which he served so well which it will be exceedingly hard to fill.