LAND AND WATER 
October 10, 1914 
tlie enemy failed repeatedly in his attempt to tlirow 
pontoons across the river. 
The last news, -nhich is as late as 7 o'clock on 
Tuesday evening, when these notes are put into thoir 
linal form, tells us that this resistance was still 
offeotively maintainod and that the garrison of 
AntAverp had imposed three fuU days of immobility 
upon the enemy. 
It is obvious that here, as throughout the 
campaign, time is a very important factor for the 
(tcrmans. They hope by this operation against 
Antwerp, if or when it is successful, to effect two 
thino-s : to release g^cat masses of troops, perhaps not 
of the best, but hitherto held to their lines of 
communication through Belgium, which were always 
threatened by a sortie from the Antwerp garrison, 
such as took plase two weeks ago ; secondly, they 
jiropose to occupy the whole of Belgian territory with 
the fall of its last political centre. 
But all this is so obvious that it hardly needs 
recital. 
AVhat is less ob^^ous is the calculation which has 
made the enemy undertake this operation so late in 
the day. That he should have delayed upon it 
during the first rush one can understand, but that he 
should have postponed it until the fourth week of the 
Battle of the Aisne, that is, while his communications 
had been in some jeopardy for quite twenty days, is 
remarkable. I sugger^, though it is only a suggestion, 
that the explanation of so tardy an action is to be 
found in two things. First, that the siege train is 
limited. We all know that it takes a long time to 
make great howitzers, and the total number that can 
be brought against fortification restricts attacks of this 
kind. Nothing was done against Verdun until 
Maubeuge had fallen. 
The other thing I suggest is, if the conjecture has 
anything in it, of real importance, for it will affect tlio 
whole development of the campaign. 
I suggest that Grermany had never envisaged tlie 
resistance of Belgium. She did envisage the resist- 
ance of the Belgian town of Namur because she 
thought that this point would be so vital to the 
French that they would seize it and try to hold it. 
She did envisage, of course, the reduction of the 
French strongholds, and, necessaril}', of Maubeuge, 
which lay right upon her proposed line of invasion 
and commanded its railway. 
Now, when a German plan is made, it has the merit 
of being thought out thoroughly ; it has the demerit 
of not being clastic, of not allowing for the unfore- 
seen. The places which Grermany thought she would 
have to deal with she not only studied, but weakened 
by long and very closely calculated acts of treachery. 
They were full of spies (as England is at the present 
moment) ; all their best emplacements for heavy guns 
were, if not prepared beforehand (as was the case at 
Maubeuge) upon property which had been conveyed 
to German owners by stealth, yet calculated and the 
opportunities for making them known. I suggest 
that in the case of Antwerp this peculiar method of 
preparing war, which is one. of the chief surprises 
of the present campaign, was neglected, and to this 
neglect we owe the delay. 
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A TOPOGRAPHICAL GUIDE TO THE 
WAR ZONE. 
By E. CHARLES VIVIAN. 
Cracow. — The second city of Austrian Galicia, and one 
of the strongest of Galician fortress towns, being equal to 
Przemsyl in this latter respect. The population of the town is 
about 100,000, mainly Polish, with about 25 per cent, of Jewish 
stock and 7 per cent. German. The industries of the town are 
unimportant as regards manufactures, but there is a large trade 
in local agricultural produce. Cracow is situated about ton 
miles south of the frontier dividing Galicia from Russian Poland, 
and is next only to Lemberg in importance among Galician 
centres of trade. It is a railway junction of some magnitude, lines 
branching hence north-west to Breslau and Silesia,[south-west of 
Vienna and Austrian centres, and east to Tarnow and Lemberg. 
Cracow has always ranked as a great educational centre for tho 
PoUsh race, and in its university the Polish language has been 
exclusively used since 1870 ; while its academy of science, founded 
in 1872, is the principal institution of its kind in GaUcia. 
Javorow.— Situated fifteen miles east of Jaroslav, and the 
terminus of a line of rail running cast to Lemberg. It is about 
equidistant from Lemberg, Jaroslav, and Przemsyl. 
^^ Vistula, River.— Tho principal river of Poland, and 
' the cradle of the Polish nationality," has a total length of 
fi20 miles, with a drainage area of over 70,000 square "miles. 
It uses in the Bcskides Hills, in Galicia, at a height of 3,G75 feet 
\vv7^ se.a-'evel, and is formed of the junction of the Black and 
U hite Vistulas ; in its extreme upper course its direction is north 
east^ through an elevated valley between the Bcskides and the 
oandomierz heights, nnd here it separates Russian Poland from 
Galicia, while by the time it reaches Cracow it has acquired 
euch a volume as to bo nearlv 100 yards iu width. At 
Znnwichvost it enters Russian Poland, and receives the San 
as its tributary, turning due north, and traversing a valley lying 
below the level of the Polish plateau. This valley is bordered 
by limestone crags, and is about ten miles in width. From 
Jusefow the river turns slightly to the west of north, and attains 
a width of 1,000 yards at normal times ; though the banks 
are dammed up by the inhabitants of the surrounding country, 
floods in the Carpathians sometimes cause the river to break its 
banks, when it inundates hundreds of square miles in the plains 
of Opolic and Kozienic, the waters sometimes reaching over 100 
miles from the river bed. The nature of the country below 
AV^arsaw is such that the river frequently changes its bed, so much 
Bo that towns which used to stand on the left bank of tho 
river are now on its right bank. It enters Prussia near the fortress 
town of Thorn, and, forcing a way through the Baltic ridge, 
turns north-cast and enters the Baltic Sea by way of the Frischa 
HafE at Dantzic. It is navigable for small boats and rafts 
practically as far as Cracow, and, at a cost of 1,000,000 sterling, 
lias been deepened and dredged near its mouth by the Prussian 
Government, with a view to increasing the value and availability 
of Dantzic as a port. An artificial channel has been constructed 
from Rothebude, twelve and a half miles up the river, to its mouth, 
and the minimum depth of this is six feet. The river has an 
extremely violent current during the rainy autumn season, 
and is practically unbridgable in its lower reaches at this time. 
General commercial navigation is maintained from the mouth 
of the river up to its junction with the Wicprz, and for this 
distance the Vistula is regarded as the cliief commercial artery 
of Poland. Its chief tributaries on the right bank are the San, 
the Wicprz, and the Bug ; on the left bank, the Nida and the 
Pilica. The principal towns on the Vistula are Cracow, 
Sandomierz, Warsaw, Plock, Thorn, and Dantzic. 
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