Hardly any part of Europe has a more forbidding aspect than this
region. There the armies must pass over a flat, undulating country,
almost as low in level as the Baltic, and therefore occupied in large
part by marshes and lagoons through which they must struggle. In
all parts the soil is unproductive. At one time it was a universal
forest: thick, dark, and dank. A century ago, however, Catherine the
Great distributed large areas of this comparatively worthless land
among her favorites and courtiers. In this way a certain percentage
was reclaimed, and with the incoming of the sunlight more favorable
conditions for human life were established. Yet even now it is
very thinly settled.
Through this region the armies must cross big rivers: the Oder, Dvina,
Warthe, Vistula, Pregel, and Niemen, northward and northeastward.
Just above or eastward of that point, where the German-Russian
frontier touches the shore, the Baltic curls into a dent, 100 miles
deep, forming the Gulf of Riga. Near the southern extremity of
this gulf, eight miles from the mouth of the Dvina, is the city
of Riga, ranking second only to Petrograd in commercial importance
as a seaport, and with a population of about 300,000.
As the armies move across the frontier they come to a vast domain
projecting into this marsh country, like a great, broad tongue
licking the shore of the Baltic; this wide strip of German territory
is East Prussia--a country to be beleaguered.
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