i&2 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE 



valleys, relief models were employed in large numbers. Field 

 Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, when asked some question on a 

 geographical point, drew from a chest a small-scale relief 

 model of the battle front and with its aid elucidated his answers. 

 Before some of the most important engagements, a large-scale 

 relief model of the battle area was constructed, and officers 

 rehearsed the coming attack while studying this miniature repre- 

 sentation of every hill, valley, knoll, and ravine which they 

 would have to cross. No class in the geographical laboratory 

 ever gathered around geographical models with such breathless 

 interest as did those British officers who studied in this way 

 the slopes of Messines and Vimy Ridges ; for to them to know 

 the detailed geography of those critical areas was literally a 

 matter of life and death. 



Weather prediction became a subject of constantly increasing 

 importance as the war progressed. Battle plans depended upon 

 possible weather changes, and a knowledge of the conditions 

 of the higher layers of the atmosphere was more and more 

 imperative as the flying forces grew in size and increased the 

 scope of their activities. When the use of poison gases de- 

 veloped, wind direction and possible wind changes assumed a 

 new significance. Weather conditions at sea must be known 

 in advance to direct properly the marine flying corps and the 

 operations of the fleets engaged in combatting the submarine 

 menace. It was not surprising, therefore, to find at the front, 

 in the flying camps and along the sea coast large numbers of 

 meteorologists, experts on the physical geography of the air, 

 placing their special knowledge at the service of army and navy. 



Were the French equally alive to the importance of 

 geography in the war ? Did their admirable army organization 

 provide place for a staff of geographical experts? Let us visit 

 Paris first, then the army fronts, to find answers to these ques- 

 tions. 



Leave the Place de la Concorde, cross the Seine, and pass 

 by the Chamber of Deputies. When you reach the Rue de 

 Crenelle, turn to your right. A big auto-camion driven by a 



