LAND AND AVATEE 
October 10, 1914 
the enemy faUed repeatedly ia his attempt to throw 
i)ontoons across the river „VU..I- r.n 
' ITie hst news, which is as late as 7 o clocl. on 
Tuesday evenin-, when these notes are put into their 
final form, tells us that this resistance was st.l 
effectively m^iintained and that the garrison of 
Antwerp had imposed three full days of immobility 
upon the enemy. i i. +i „ 
It is obvious that here, as throughout the 
campaign, time is a very important factor for the 
(lennans. They hope by this operation against 
Vntwerp. if or when it is successful, to effect two 
thin^ : to release great masses of troops, perhaps not 
of the best, but hitherto held to their lines of 
communication throuj^h Belgium, which ^vere always 
throatcaed by a sortie from the Antwerp garrison, 
such as took plac3 two weeks ago ; secondly, thoy 
propose to occupy the whole of Bslgian territory witli 
the fall of its last political centre. 
But all this is so obvious that it hardly needs 
recital. ,■■,■, 
What is less obvious is the calculation which has 
made the enemy nndertake 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 foui'th 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 caa 
be brouf'ht 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 the 
whole development of the campaign. 
I suggest that G-ermany had never envisaged the 
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, necessarily, of Maubougo, 
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 Germany thought she Avould 
have to deal with she not only studied, but weakened 
by long and very closely calculated acts of treachery. 
They Avere 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. 
NOTK— THIS ABTIOU HAS BEEX eOBMITTia) TO THE PRESS BOBKAC, WHICH DOES NOT OBJECT TO THE PUBLICATION AS CBNSOBBD 
AKD TAKES KO BESPONSIBILITY FOB THE CORRECTNESS OP THE STATEMENTS. 
Df ACCOEDAKO WITH THE KEQUIRBMENT3 OP THE PRESS BUBKAIT, THE POSITIONS OP TROOPS ON PLANS ILLITSTRATING THIS 
ARTICLE MUST ONLY BE REGARDED AS APPROXIMATE, AND KO DEFINITE STRENGTH AT ANT POINT IS INDICATED. 
A TOPOGRAPHICAL GUIDE TO THE 
WAR ZONE. 
By E. CHARLES VIVIAN. 
Cracow. — The Becond city of Austrian Gallcia, 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 ten 
miles south of the frontier dividing Galicia from Eussian Poland, 
and is ne.xt only to Lemberg in importance among Galician 
rentresof 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 Tamow "and Lemberg. 
Cracow has always ranked as a great educational centre for the 
Pohsh 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 in.stitution of its kind in Galicia. 
Javorow.— Situated fifteen miles cast of Jaroslav, and the 
terminus of a line of rail running east to Lemberg. It is about 
equidistant from Lemberg, Jaroslav, and Przemsyl. 
„ Vistula, River.— The principal river of Poland, and 
the cradle of the Polish nationality," has a total length of 
«20 miles, with a drainage area of over 70,000 square "miles. 
It rises m the Beskides Hills, in Galicia, at a height of 3,675 feet 
nhwe sea-level, and is formed of the junction of the Black and 
>\ bite Vistulas ; in its extreme upper course its direction is north 
cast through an elevated valley between the Beskides and the 
^andomierz heights, and here it separates Russian Poland from 
(.alicia, while by the time it reaches Cracow it has acquired 
Burli .1 volume as to be nearly 100 vards in width. At 
/;anwichvost it enters Russian Poland, and receives the San 
as its tributary, turiiing 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 
JiLsefow 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 coimtry, 
floods in the Carpathians sometimes cause the river to break its 
banks, when it inundates hundreds of square miles in the plain.^ 
of Opolic and Kozienic, the waters sometimes reaching over 100 
miles from the river bed. The nature of the coimtry below 
Warsaw is such that the river frequently changes its bed, so much 
80 that towns which used to stand on the left bank of the 
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-east and enters the Baltic Sea by way of the Frische 
Hail 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 imbridgable in its lower reaches at this time. 
General commercial navigation is maintained from the mouth 
of the river up to its junction with the Wieprz, and for this 
distance the Vistula is regarded as the chief commercial artery 
of Poland. Its chief tributaries on the right bank are the San, 
the Wieprz, 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. 
10*. 
