the Kashkar or Chitral river from that of the Arnawai. He reported that
he was kindly received by the villagers of the Lut-dih district, who
belong to the Bashgal tribe of Kafirs. The valley is important, for
along it there runs a direct and comparatively easy route from
Badakshan to Jelalabad. No doubt he would have explored the country
more fully, but owing to the conduct of a native, who maliciously
spread about the report of his being a British spy, Mr. McNair was
forced to abandon further attempts. He ascended, however, to the Dora
Pass over the Hindu Kush Mountains, which he found to be a little over
14,000 feet in height, with an easy ascent, quite practicable for laden
animals. This pass had been previously explored by the "Havildar" on
his return journey to India in 1870-71. Mr. McNair returned by way of
Mastuj, Yasin, Gilghit, and Srinagar. The account of his adventurous
and important journey was read by him before the Royal Geographical
Seciety on the 10th December, 1883, but official permission to publish
the map could not be obtained.

_From the "Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society," November,_
1889.

Obituary.

The late Mr. W.W. McNair.--Colonel T. H. Holdich, R.E., sends us from
India the following additional details regarding the career of Mr.
McNair, briefly noticed in our last issue:--Amongst the many practical
geographers who have passed away during the year 1889 is Mr. W. McNair,
of the Indian Survey Department. His career was very closely connected
with a new phase of military exploration carried out on the frontier of
India, which had gradually superseded the older forms of
reconnaissance, and was rendered possible by late improvements in the
smaller classes of instruments, and a wider knowledge of the use of the
plane-table. For about ten years previous to the Afghan War of 1879,
McNair was attached to the topographical branch of the Indian Survey,
and he had always shown a special aptitude for that class of work,
which consists in acquiring a comprehensive grasp of a wide field of
geographical detail in the shortest possible space of time. When war
broke out, Afghanistan no longer afforded a field for such simple
geographical exploration as had already been accomplished during the
campaign of 1839-43. A completer military survey of all important
districts was required, which would furnish detailed information of
routes and passes which were far removed from the beaten tracks