Julv 24, 1915. 
LAND AND WATER. 
^<<> 
10 15 ^20 05 
Miles 
a belt the Narew protects the main northern rail- 
way. At its narrowest and near Serock. where 
the Narew falls into the Bug, you have not more 
than twelve or thirteen miles, which increase, up 
to the line passing through Lomza and from the 
mouth of the Pissa, to a matter of about forty 
miles. 
This belt is served by two subsidiary rail- 
ways, of single line, of course, but, if I am not mis- 
taken, of the ordinary Russian gauge. The one 
marked (1) (1) upon t)iagram IV. bends up as a 
loopline to serve Ostrolenka, a country town upon 
the middle Narew; the other runs from the apex 
of this loop perpendicularly down to and across 
the main line, and is marked upon Diagram IV. 
(2) (2). 
It will be clearly apparent to the reader that 
these railways (1) (1) and (2) (2) can be of no ser- 
vice to the enemy in his advance should he force 
the line of the Narew, unless the Russians were 
foolish enough to leave rolling stock upon them : 
an error which no commander could commit. 
-There is, however, for the enemy's supply in this 
advance a railway which they can continuously 
use, because it links up with their own highly de- 
veloped system beyond the frontier and with the 
railway from Mlawa to Neo Georgievsk. It is 
the existence of this railwaj^ which makes it cer- 
tain that the main effort must come westward of 
the River Orjec, and, indeed, it is upon the belt 
west of that railway that we have- seen the main 
enemy advance in the last few days. 
Certain Russian outposts lav in Przasnych 
and Ciechanow, while rather behind these out- 
posts a preliminary line was prepared to cover the 
Russian retirement, and ran from Ciechanow to 
the crossing of the Orjec at Kraznosielce. 
The outposts fell back before the German ad- 
vance on Przasnych on July 14. The Russian 
rearguard held up the enemy from the 15th and 
16th along the fortified line Ciechanow and Kras- 
nosielce, only falling back upon the 17th, after 
having inflicted as much loss as possible upon the 
advancing Germans, the operation precisely re- 
sembling the corresponding retirement from Jaro- 
slav on May 13-16 last. The great mass of the 
Russian forces, thus protected by the Ciechanow- 
Krasnosielc« screen, had in the interval retired 
to points close upon the Narew, and upon Sunday, 
the 18th, which day gives us our last news of the 
north as of the south of Poland, the line which 
had a week before corresponded to the line of 
crosses upon Diagram IV. lay as do upon the 
same diagram the dashes, while to conform with 
this retirement the lines along the Bzura River 
south of the Vistula, which had been held for so 
many months, were given up, and a new line, as 
shown on Diagram fv. by the dashes, prolonged 
south of the Vistula, was taken up to cover War- 
saw upon that side. 
These lines pass in front of the vill^.ge of 
Blonie, and are called by the name of that town. 
Now the whole interest of the present posi- 
tion in front of the Narew consists in the nature 
and result of the Russians' further retirement. 
The Narew is a slow stream, no broader m 
