September 25, 1915. 
LAND AND WATER. 
It stood last Saturday and Sunday — the last days 
of which I have news as I write. 
CREATION OF THE SALIENT OF 
VILNA. 
A fortnight ago, on Wednesday, September 8, 
the German positions and the Russians facing 
them from Riga, right away down to the marshes, 
correspond roughly to the chain of crosses on the 
foregoing Sketch I. 
No definite salient had been produced, but 
the tendency to the creation of one was apparent 
in the fact that pressure was being exercised, not 
evenly along the whole of this front, but with a 
special intensity in the three regions marked by 
the group of arrows at 1, and at 2 and 3. 2 and 
3 may be regarded as one common movement, 
undertaken in two fields; while 1 proceeded in 
three parallel movements, all directed towards the 
town of Dvinsk and all in touch. 
It was clear that if the pressure along the 
group of arrows 1 reached the Dvinsk-Vilna rail- 
way, while the pressure represented by the arrows 
2 and 3 should approach Lida, a salient would be 
created round the town of Vilna. Supposing, for 
instance, the pressure of these two groups — the 
first at 1, the second at 2 and 3 — reduced the lino 
to such a shape as that indicated by the dashes, 
the salient would already be in process of forma- 
tion, and a neck would have begun to appear, 
stretching from the point A to the point B. 
It will, further, be apparent that if the con- 
tinuous progress of the enemy cut the railway 
below Lida along the arrow 4, and the railway 
from Vilna to Dvinsk along the arrow 5, and the 
advance were to continue, the salient would get 
more and more pronounced, while the oppor- 
tunities of retirement would be confined to the line 
marked (6)— (6)— (6). 
This is not exactly what happened, as wa 
shall see. The salient was created. In its last 
stages — that is, by the end of last week — it had 
reached a very acute form ; but this form was not 
that of the obvious original German plan. It did 
not cut the railway at 4 in time, while on the 
other hand it developed — in a peculiar fashion to 
be described in a moment — a very great extension 
on the north much beyond the point A, right down 
to the railway (6) — (6) — (6). 
At any rate, our starting point is that a fort- 
night ago (on September 8), after the fall of 
Grodno, the creation of the salient round Vilna 
was being attempted by the enemy, or, in other 
