156 The Great War of the Ural. From Czernowltz almost to Berlin on this line the Carpathian and Bohemian ranges form a solid wall. Again, draw a line from Memel, the Prussian town furthest north and east, to Berlin and, roughly speaking, all to the north of it will be the Baltic, to the south the mainland. Between Memel and Czernowitz is perhaps 700 miles, between the Baltic and the Saxon Mountains less than 250. It is plain, then, that a Russian invasion which had its right on the Baltic, its left on the Carpathians and its centre half way between the two would move on Berlin, its flanks protected by natural obstacles, the sea and the mountains, its front slowly shorten- ing and thus causing its battle line to contract. Now as to the political. If a letter " U " Is drawn with its two points on Memel and Czernowitz it will approximately mark the political frontiers — the semi-circle will be Russian Poland, while north and east German Prussia and south and east Austrian Galicia will half surround the Russian Polish territory. At the nearest point to Berlin, that is, at the westernmost point in the semicircle just east of Posen, the Russian frontier is not more than 200 miles from the German capital. The natural expectation, then, might have been, in fact was, that Russia would at once send a huge army to Posen and on to Berhn. But for mihtary reasons this was wholly impracticable. As long as the Germans held East Prussia, the Austrians Galicia, their armies advancing south and north respectively