208 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE 



terials for concrete, road metal, and similar economic products, 

 and was not sufficiently detailed nor exact to guide engineer- 

 ing works below the surface. 



In the Russian Armies it was the practice to attach to each 

 large division of the military forces a technical corps which 

 included at least one geologist and his assistants. There were 

 said to be seventeen of these units with their associated geolog- 

 ists on the Russian front. It was the duty of the Russian 

 geologists to advise their army engineers and other military 

 authorities regarding the usual geological factors affecting the 

 construction of trenches, shelters, and tunnels, the development 

 of water supplies; and the location of materials needed for 

 the building of roads, fortifications, and other military engi- 

 neering works. 



Before Roumania entered the war her government commis- 

 sioned the Roumanian Geological Institute under the director- 

 ship of its excellent chief Professor L. Mrazec, to prepare 

 a report with map on the surface and underground water 

 resources of the Dobrudja. This work was duly completed, 

 but the engineers of the Roumanian Army had small appre- 

 ciation of the value of geology, and according to report little 

 use was made of the important information put at their dis- 

 posal. The Roumanian armies in the Dobrudja suffered 

 greatly from lack of a proper water supply, and when the 

 Russians entered the region the geologist associated 'with the 

 Czar's troops was astonished to find on the one hand an un- 

 used report on the water resources of the region, and on the 

 other an army suffering from lack of water through the short- 

 sighted policy of its engineers. The Russian geologist found 

 the work of the Geological Institute of so much value that 

 he went to Bucharest in person to secure further details about 

 the geology of the country in which the Russian troops were 

 stationed. Among other problems referred to the Institute 

 was that of designing camouflage to imitate the rock outcrops 

 of certain sections of Roumania. But in general the geological 

 services rendered after the country entered the war were slight, 



