forming the right wing of the troops engaged in the movement. The
columns of the left wing broke out of East Prussia at its northernmost
point, and moved along the dunes of the Baltic. On the second day of
the forward march it was learned by the leaders of the advancing
troops that the Russians had hastily left their position at Skawdwile,
on the main road from Tilsit to Mitau, to escape being surrounded on
their left flank, and had withdrawn to Shavli by way of Heilmy. On the
third day the German right column crossed the Windawski Canal under
the enemy's fire, and on the afternoon of the 30th of April this
column entered Shavli, which had been set on fire by the Russians.

[Illustration: German Advance on Riga.]

The Germans had now crossed at several points the Libau-Dunaburg
railway. They were in Telsche and Trischki. Their cavalry pushed ahead
at full speed with orders to destroy the railways wherever it found
them. On the road to Mitau they captured Russian machine guns,
ammunition wagons, and baggage, and broke up the railway tracks to the
southwest and northwest of Shavli. The Russians who had been taken by
surprise by this movement had apparently only weak forces in Courland,
and these had retired while reenforcements were being rushed up by
railway. The German infantry, upon the receipt of reports that the
Russians were moving up by rail from Kovno on their right flank, was
ordered to stop its advance and prepare to hold the Dubissa line,
taking up a front running a little east of south. Cavalry moving
forward in the center of the German advance on the 3d of May, 1915,
got within two kilometers of Mitau, going beyond Gruenhof and capturing
2,000 Russians. At Skaisgiry on the day before 1,000 prisoners had
been taken, and Janischki and Shagory had been occupied far beyond the
Libau-Dunaburg railway. By this time Russian reenforcements were
arriving at Mitau in huge numbers. The German cavalry ultimately fell
back after indicting all possible damage to the communications in
their reach.

The Germans prided themselves a good deal on the marching of their
troops in this swift advance. They pointed out that the roads were in
extremely bad condition, the bridges for the most destroyed, and the
population to a large extent hostile. A military correspondent figured
that for a daily march of fifty kilometers, such as was frequently
made in Courland, 62,000 steps of an average of eighty centimeters
were required. Thi