616 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



naturally expands; instead of information culled by a few daring riders 

 from a narrow circuit, it should be made to embrace the widest area of 

 country and the utmost latitude of information — the condition of the 

 enemy as to armament, resources, position of forces, possible disaffection 

 among the people — everything. In war no item comes amiss. The 

 wealthier country will here have a manifest advantage; it can afford 

 to hire spies, and can even (as England did during the Revolution) pur- 

 chase the treason of some disaffected chief. Caution for the lesser 

 country will — if good generalship prevails — take the shape of occupy- 

 ing and strengthening the natural strategic positions. These are noth- 

 ing but flanks of a bastion on a large scale. Upon the map round black 

 dots represent strategic positions along the frontier. They are points 



susceptible of thorough fortification which control the several passes 

 in the mountain range between the two nations; also heads of valleys, 

 where several meet, and from which attacks could be made at will in a 

 number of directions. This entire frontier, which may be hundreds of 

 miles broad, is mountainous, capable of being fortified at countless 

 points, and having natural 'defensive relations' needing only the art of 

 warcraft to render them almost impregnable. Modern murderous arms 

 lend their services more readily to defense than to offense. It is even 

 possible that the country 'B', warned in due season of the purposes of 

 her powerful rival, may have plotted out each rod of ground among 

 those mountain passes, and that artillery service, once a matter of gun- 

 nery, has now become a matter of mathematics. 



We now come to the fourth maxim of war; it is that of efficient 



