364 Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



Their son Charles Alexander followed his father's steps, and early 

 in 1847 obtained a commission in the 39th Madras Native Infantry , 

 In this regiment he served for eight years, and was then transferred to 

 the Madras Staff Corps, and from that, early in 1856, to the Punjab 

 Commission. On this he rose to be a Commissioner, holding that 

 office for about 14 years, and retired in 1885, his last appointment 

 being the Commissionership of Lahore. By that time he had become 

 a colonel in the Army, but after his return to England he rose to 

 be major-general in 1888, and lieutenant-general in 1892. One 

 notable episode in his Indian career illustrated his readiness and 

 courage as a soldier, another his ability as a judge. In 1857, at the out- 

 break of the Mutiny, McMahon, then a lieutenant and Assistant Commis- 

 sioner of Sialkot, was placed, by the illness of his superior, in charge 

 of a large district, including a cantonment. Directly afterwards, on 

 July 9, the native troops rose, murdered some Europeans, among them 

 four of their officers, and, after plundering the place, decamped to join 

 the rebels. McMahon managed to send off a hurried note by a 

 trustworthy trooper to General Nicholson, who was leading a moveable 

 column to Delhi, which fortunately reached him at Amritsar. 

 Changing his line of march, he met and destroyed the main body of 

 mutineers at Trimmoo Ghat, and restored order at Sialkot so com- 

 pletely that a few days later McMahon led a small force to the 

 frontier of Kashmir, and obtained the surrender of some hundred and 

 forty refugee rebels, most of whom were duly executed. 



The other instance was in 1865, when, as Deputy Commissioner of 

 Delhi, he had to decide a very important civil suit against the Govern- 

 ment of India, which had been remitted by the Privy Council for trial 

 on its merits. The plaintiffs claimed possession of the Pergannah of 

 Badshah-Pur, with the mesne profits for about fifty years ; the sum 

 involved being estimated at a million and a-half pounds sterling. The 

 issues were intricate, and it is no small testimony to McMahon's judicial 

 powers that his decision was upheld, on appeal, first by the Superior 

 Courts of the Punjaub, and then by the Privy Council in England. 



He began the serious study of geology and petrology in 1871, 

 when Commissioner of Hissar, and six years later his first important 

 paper, a description of the Blaini Group and the central gneiss of the 

 Simla Himalayas, was published in the " Eecords of the Geological 

 Survey of India" (Vol. X). He speaks, in this, of having examined 

 more than two hundred thin slices of rocks which, presumably, had 

 been made with his own hands. It was followed by ' Notes of a Tour 

 through Hangrang and Spiti,' in which he describes certain schists, 

 the central gneiss and granite, asserting the last to be indubitably an 

 eruptive rock, and makes some interesting remarks on glacial phenomena 



