tment for the time
being and take his chance. In order to appreciate properly the spirit
of enterprise which animated the man, critics of his actions should put
themselves in his place. He was well aware that the information which
he could obtain would be of the highest value; further, he knew that
probably there was not another man in India who could obtain it as
successfully as himself, and he judged that some slight exception might
be made in his favour if he took on himself the responsibility of
accepting a most favourable opportunity of doing most valuable work at
the expense of infringing certain rules about crossing the border.
These rules were, to say the least, vague and indefinite, and had never
been officially promulgated. Reward or recognition of service he
rightly never expected. It must fairly be conceded that the conditions
under which such a spirit of enterprise was shown made that spirit
especially honourable--for the Government of India has never been in a
position to encourage any such ventures. On the contrary, the possible
gain in information has always been held to be more than
counterbalanced by the chance of "complications." Lord Lytton, ever
ready to bewail the decadence of a soldierly spirit of enterprise
amongst our officers, was yet never quite able to see his way to making
such enterprise possible to a man who valued his commission. Lord
Ripon, under whose rule indeed more geographical work was completed
than under any previous Viceroy, was apt to regard the line of frontier
peaks and passes much as a careful gardener regards a row of
beehives--as subjects of tender treatment and watchful care: whilst
Lord Dufferin has lately with one wide sweep removed the great
incentment to all exploration enterprise by making the results thereof
"strictly confidential." These are cloudy conditions under which to
grow a true spirit of enterprise, and where it here and there crops up
and flourishes in spite of circumstances it is surely all the more to
be commended.

The story of McNair's journey to Kaffiristan need not be told here. It
was not made strictly confidential in those days, and it will be found
in the chronicles of the Royal Geographical Society. For this
performance he obtained the Murchison grant of the Society, and on the
strength of it he may be said to have taken his place amongst the first
geographers of the day. His frontier work did not end here. For the
last two years he was engaged o