That side of the jar resting on the table represents
the Carpathian range, solid indeed, but with numerous openings:
these are the passes. The upper side of the jar represents the
Russian frontier, across which the invaders had swarmed in and
taken possession of the whole inside, lining themselves right along
the mouths of the passes at the bottom and across the neck upwards.

For months the Austrians vainly endeavored to force an entrance
through the thickest walls--from the lower edge, and from the base
or bottom of the jar (the Bukowina), apparently overlooking the
rather obvious proposition that the cork was the softest part and
_that_ was Dmitrieff's Dunajec-Biala line. Here at least no mountain
range stood in the way. It may also be regarded as a mathematical
axiom that, given sufficient artillery power, the strongest defense
the wit of man could devise can be smashed. What Mackensen did,
thererore, was to blow a hole through the cork, push in a pair of
scissors up to the rivet, meanwhile opening the blades to an angle
of about forty-five degrees. From the lower or southern shoulder
of the jar the Third Austro-Hungarian Army pushes forward inside,
supported on its right by Boehm-Ermolli, who had been just inside
a long time, but could get no farther. They began to shepherd the
Russian troops around and in the western passes toward the lower
double-edged blade of Von Mackensen's terrible scissors. The Russian
retreat to the Wisloka was a serious disaster for Dmitrieff; he
had been caught napping, and had to pay dearly in men and guns for
not having created a row of alternative positions. His force had
been a cover for Brussilov's operations on both sides of the western
passes as well as for the whole Russian line in the Carpathians. Now
that Von Mackensen had pried the lid off, Brussilov's men in the
south encountered enormous difficulties in extricating themselves
from the Carpathian foothills, suddenly transformed from comparative
strongholds into death-traps and no longer tenable. They suffered
severely, especially the Forty-eighth Division.

Besides the menace from the northwest of Von Mackensen's swiftly
approaching right, a third blade was gradually growing on the deadly
scissors, in the shape of Boehm-Ermolli's and Von Bojna's forces,
threatening to grind them between two relentless jaws of steel. It
is Sunday, the second day of May, 1915; to all intents and purposes
the battle of the Dunajec, as such, was