ong the river without a
splash, and strange, unaccustomed outlines grew up as we proceeded.
'What place is that yonder?' I asked my neighbor. 'Pinsk,' he replied.
I felt excited; we were near a town that was occupied by the Germans,
and I wished that boat would turn back.

"We got into the rushes and moved through the jungle as though we were
advancing in open water, for the path through the rushes had been
prepared in the autumn. We advanced in this manner forty minutes until
we could distinctly hear the whistling of steam engines and the bells
ringing in the monastery at Pinsk. It was evident that the monks had
remained. 'The kaiser himself was in Pinsk in November,' said one of
my companions, 'and we knew it. The Germans blew horns all over the
railway line and sang their national hymn. In Pinsk there was much
animation.'

"A minute or two later the boat stopped and I was told it was
dangerous to go farther. On the right we could see the outlines of
houses and of the quay at Pinsk, only about a thousand paces distant.
The town was covered by a thin mist and a faint fog was rising from
the marsh.

"'There on your left are their heavy guns.' I could see nothing except
some trenches near the quay.

"We took our leave of Pinsk. The twilight had arrived and it was
necessary to retire."

Though the ice on the rivers and lakes had well broken up by the
middle of April, thaw, of course, steadily increased, and with it the
volume of water carried by the creeks and rivers. More and more
difficult it became, therefore, to carry out military operations, and,
as a result of these conditions, they were especially limited at this
period.

In spite of this the Russians attempted local advance on April 13,
1916, in the region of Garbunovka, northwest of Dvinsk and south of
Lake Narotch; however, though their losses were quite heavy, they
could not gain any ground. This was also true of another local attack
made against the army of Prince Leopold of Bavaria near Zirin, on the
Servetsch River northeast of Baranovitchy. Similarly unsuccessful were
German attacks made the same day between Lakes Sventen and Itzen.
German artillery still kept up its work along the entire front,
especially at Lake Miadziol, south of Dvinsk at Lake Narotch, and at
Smorgon, the little railroad station south of the Viliya River on the
Vilna-Minsk railway.

On the following day, April 14, 1916, the Russians repeated their
efforts in the Servetsch reg