t only of his brother's
death, but of his burial. The railway journey from Calcutta to
Mussooree is a long one of about a thousand miles; but Indian Railways,
travelling even at express speed, do not exceed twenty-five miles an
hour. The sympathy experienced by the sorrowing family from near and
distant friends was beyond mere conventional words of condolence. I
have it, from the members of the family themselves, that they were
comforted in a very real and essential manner by the tender and
extremely touching devotion of their friends, the depth of whose regard
was then for the first time in many cases discovered. Rising above and
beyond this general sympathy, two proofs came with a binding and
enduring force that mark them out for special mention. They typify the
two extremes of human life and the complexity of human relations. On
the one hand there was the perfect knowledge of every detail of daily
life and sacrifice, and the loyalty and enthusiasm that made such a
life possible, which _sharing_ a life to the full means. On the other,
there was the tender reverence bred of looking up to something that
seemed better and higher than the common lot of men. The two extremes I
refer to were centered in the man who had most scientific knowledge of
William McNair's worth, and the closest sympathy with his life, namely,
Colonel Holdich, of the Royal Engineers, under whom McNair served, and
for whom I know McNair had the highest admiration and the warmest
personal regard, and native subordinates McNair had under him, who
loved as only Asiatics can love Europeans whom they revere. An intrepid
explorer himself, _vide_ the announcement made regarding Colonel
Holdich by Sir Henry Rawlinson at the close of the discussion on the
paper read by McNair, Colonel Holdich has added year by year to his
many signal scientific services rendered to the Indian Government; and
recently he has added to his many accomplishments the rarer merit among
men of that love of worth in others, which culminates in human
brotherhood. His words of appropriate Oriental metaphor, in writing to
the family, that his sense of personal loss in the man with whom he had
for years, in the wildest solitudes and the most prolonged hardships,
eaten "bread and salt" together, made it difficult for him to say all
he felt, were emphasised by the human grief he could not repress at the
funeral; where, owing to the suddenness with which everything had
happened, he was indeed