near Odessa, are the fortifications which guard the Black Sea.

Along the Austrian frontier are the strong embattlements of Cracow and
Przemysl, on the road to Lemberg in Galicia. These forts face Poland. In
Hungary there are Gyula-Fehervar and Arad, on the Maros River, and which
guard the approach from the angle of Roumania. On her frontier facing
Servia there are Alt-Orsova and Peterwardein, on the Danube, and
Sarajevo, in Bosnia, with Temesvar and Komorn blocking the approach to
Vienna from the southeast. On the Adriatic are Cattaro, on the edge of
Montenegro, and the naval arsenals of Pola and Trieste. All the Alpine
passes of the Tyrol are fortified, but neither Vienna nor Budapest has
any defenses.

The fortifications of Italy, aside from those on her coasts, extend in a
line from Venice, through Verona, Mantua and Piacenza to Alessandria and
Casale, which face the French frontier.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE WORLD'S NAVIES.

GERMANY'S SEA STRENGTH--GREAT BRITAIN'S IMMENSE WAR FLEET--IMMENSE
FIGHTING CRAFT--THE UNITED STATES' NEW BATTLE CRUISERS--THE FASTEST AND
BIGGEST OCEAN FIGHTING SHIPS--THE PICTURESQUE MARINES: THE SOLDIERS OF
THE SEA.

Just as Germany at the outset of the war had the most efficient and,
broadly speaking, the greatest army in the world, so England had the
greatest navy in the world. As a matter of fact, Great Britain's
domination of the seas was very largely responsible for the development
of the super-submarine by Germany, and the putting into effect of the
submarine warfare which proved so disastrous to the Allies. This for the
reason that Germany, having sought for means to offset Great Britain's
power and control of the seas, turned to the underseas craft.

Up to the accession of Emperor William II--the Kaiser--Germany's navy
was little more than a joke. In 1848 the National Parliament voted six
million thalers for the creation of a fleet, and some boats were
constructed. But the attempts to weld Germany, then little more than a
federation, into a nation having failed, the fleet was put up at
auction, and actually sold in 1852. Prussia, a separate state, had
started a fleet of her own and purchased the German boats.

This fleet, just before the American Civil War, consisted of four
cruisers, carrying 28 cannon, and one cruiser having 17 cannon, besides
which there were 21 "cannon boats," carrying two and three cannons each.
The Prussian fleet merged into the North German Confede