times larger than the besieged force. But in the case of
Warsaw we shall see that that would not have been a wise plan; hardly
any food supply that could have been laid by would have maintained the
large civil population, and the big guns of the Germans would soon have
battered down the city's defenses.

This the Russians realized from the very beginning. As is well known
now, Russia had never intended to hold Poland against the Teutons. Her
real line of defense was laid much farther back. It was only on account
of the protest of France, when the two Governments entered into their
alliance, that any fortifications at all were thrown up in Poland. A
real line of defense must be more or less a straight line, with no
break. And the marshes in the north, as well as the tongue of East
Prussia projecting in along the shores of the Baltic toward Riga made
that impossible. Russia's real line of defense was farther east, along
the borders of Russia proper and along the line of railroad already
referred to. By studying this territory east of Poland it will become
obvious why Russia should prefer this as her main line of defense
against a German invasion.

As we witness the armies moving along what was once the frontier between
Poland and Russia proper we shall find the plain of Poland dips into a
region which apparently was once a vast lake which drained into the
Dnieper, but the outlet becoming choked, this stagnant water formed into
those immense morasses known as the Pripet Marshes, forming over
two-fifths of the whole province of Minsk and covering an area of over
600 square miles. Even when more than 6,000,000 acres have been
reclaimed by drainage, the armies found some of these marshes extending
continuously for over 200 miles. In the upper Pripet basin the woods
were everywhere full of countless little channels which creep through a
wilderness of sedge. Along the right bank of the Pripet River the land
rises above the level of the water and is fairly thickly populated.
Elsewhere extends a great intricate network of streams with endless
fields of bulrushes and stunted woods. Over these bogs hang unhealthy
vapors, and among the rank reeds there is no fly, nor mosquito, nor
living soul or sound in the autumn.

Not even infantry could pass over this region--not to consider cavalry
or artillery, save in the depth of a cold winter when the water and mire
is frozen. Even then it would be impossible to venture over the ice
with