60 Proceedings of Indiana Academy of Science. 
PHYSIOGRAPHY AND WAR. 
Wn. A. McBetu, Terre Haute, Indiana State Normal School. 
The relation of physiography and war is clear and pervasive. Most 
of the wars of history have had their causes, have run their courses 
and have had their results determined under the influence of geograph- 
ical environment. Raids were made into fertile territories for plunder 
or for permanent possession. Desert and mountainous regions have 
sent out their hungry hordes to conquest and pillage. Mountains, rivers 
and marshes have furnished favorable lines of defense. Mountain passes, 
valley ways and easy river crossings have been sought as points of 
attack. Climatically men prefer to march, go into battle, and carry on 
other activities of war in good weather. Winter often causes long and 
almost complete suspension of hostilities. Heavy rains turn fields and 
roads into quagmires, impede movement of troops, block transportation 
of munitions and food, and make impossible the handling of heavy 
artillery, causing unexpected delay, change of plan, and possibly disaster. 
Military and naval strategy take into account, even build on the 
groundwork of natural features. An account of the campaigns of any 
war of recent times clearly shows this fact. The significance of the 
Hudson-Champlain Valley, with its nearly continuous line of water 
communication, in the French wars and in the War of the Revolution, 
is a striking illustration. The strategy of the Civil War in the United 
States centers in the Allegheny Mountain barrier, with the Ohio River 
as a secondary line of operations. The Mississippi River, the Chatta- 
nooga Gap, the Potomac River as lines of movement by either of the 
contending armies are familiar to all students of history. Naval opera- 
tions to enforce a blockade were carried on along the Southern coasts 
by the Federal forces, while the Confederates sought to break through 
and destroy this sentinel cordon. 
In the World War the armies of the Central Powers broke into and 
across Belgium because the smooth Flanders plain gave easier entrance 
into France than the way across the mountainous frontier between 
France and Germany farther south, where Verdun withstood shock after 
shock unconquered. The Somme, Aisne and Marne are names of rivers 
flowing west in France along which the invading armies undertook to 
make their way toward the channel ports or Paris, and Amiens, Soissons 
and Chateau-Thierry are important points of effective resistance, the 
last a crossing of the Marne, where the Huns were finally stopped and 
