Hence, we observe their efforts to gain possession of the Russian
railroads.
We come now to the central part of the eastern front. Here, just
below East Prussia, Russian Poland projects into German territory
in a great salient, about 200 miles wide and 250 long, resembling
a huge bite in shape.
This land is a monotonous, wind-swept plain, slightly undulating,
its higher parts not even 500 feet above sea level. To the northward
and eastward it descends gradually into the still lower lands of
East Prussia and White Russia, but in the south it lifts into the
foothills of the Carpathian Mountains.
Gigantic armies are to move over this plateau, timbered in parts
with oak, beech, and lime, and in some sections deeply cut by small
rivers and streams forming fissures, some narrow and craggy, others
broad and sloping with marshy bottoms. Toward the south the soldiers
must cross narrow ravines in all directions, often covered with wild,
thick undergrowth. The chief river is the Vistula, which enters
by the southern boundary and flows first north, then northwest,
skirting the plateau region at a height of 700 feet, finally making
its exit near Thorn, thence on to the Baltic through East Prussia.
Its valley divides the hilly tracts into two parts: Lublin heights
in the east and the Sedomierz heights to the westward. Picture
in your mind the great armies approaching these ridges, the most
notable of which is the Holy Cross Mountains, rising peaks almost
2,000 feet above sea level.
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