including several lines passing over the Carpathians into
Hungary. And farther west still we shall look upon the invasion of the
old Polish city of Cracow, also strongly fortified. This section is
especially rich in industries, mines, and agriculture.

Here, too, are staged many of the battles of the rivers--parallel with
the mountain ranges flows the Dniester in a southeasterly direction,
into which, flowing down from the north and running parallel with each
other, empty the Gnila Lipa, the Zlota Lipa, and the Stripa, all of
which figure prominently in the war movements, for each of these is
crossed several times by both armies engaged at bloody costs.

As will be noted by reading the chapters on the fighting on the eastern
front, here, as in East Prussia, the Russians make a determined advance
and actually succeed in conquering this territory from the Austrians. At
one time we find them even in possession of all except one of the chief
passes in the Carpathians and threatening to overrun the plains of
Hungary. To hold Russian Poland it was necessary that they should have a
firm grip of East Prussia and Austrian Poland, thus protecting the
flanks of their center. Had they been able to hold their grip, then they
could have straightened out their entire line from north to south, and
Warsaw would have been safe. But we shall see both their extremities
driven back; therefore Warsaw was in danger, in spite of its
fortifications.

That the Austrians should have allowed themselves to be thrust back over
the Carpathians is one of the surprises of the early stages of the war.
For these mountains are only second in size in all Europe to the Alps
themselves, forming the eastern wing of the great European mountain
system. They are about 800 miles long and nearly 250 miles wide in
parts. Some of the higher peaks reach 8,000 feet above sea level.

Imagine the vision of an army marching along the roads from the
foothills to the mountains leading through mysterious, shadowy spruce
forests, where the soil is covered with rich carpets of moss. Foaming
streams ripple in among the moss-covered bowlders. Then the paths emerge
on the cheerful, emerald-green pastures of the slopes, alive with the
flocks of goats, sheep and cattle, attended by their shepherds. A little
farther and the whole scenery changes, and the armies approach
tremendous mountains of solid granite, ominously dark, shining like
hammered iron, rising abruptly from the st