Norwich bulletin., 1915-07-31

oats. wheat, barley, buclwheat, peas, potatoes, flax and hemp. The potato
 crop is used. in part, for the manu- fracture of alcohol. This is carried on
 government The flax and hemp Hind their disposition home factories, in the factories of Lodz, and in ex- port. Gees-probably, the distinctive product Of Russian Poland, and one
 which, in the past, has taken a val Empire with it's untold tons of goose flesh and it's acres of goosefeather bedding-are found in countless white and grayinsh-white herds throughout profitable part of Lomzha farming. The country in the Lornzha gov- ernment is mostly flat, monotonous,
 or slightly undilating, except in stretches in the north and southwest. Except for river crossings and forest
 belts, 1t is open for the passage of troops. Its roads, as are all roads | in Poland and in Russia, are very | bad. In the east of the government and stretching away to the fortress | of Osowiec in the government of Grodno are heavy forest tracts. There are no rail communications in
 the government, except that which I connects the fortress Ostrolenka with
 the main line between Warsaw, Grod-
 no and Wilma"
 | The Bus-sThe line of the Bug" | (Boog) toward which the Russians | some days ago were said 10 be re- treating and which they were deter
 mined to hold against the invading | Teutonic forces, is a dividing line be- | tween what Is now known as Russian Poland and the provinces of Russia proper" says the latest statement fs-
 sued by the National Geographic so-
 ciety upon the war geography of Eu- rope. 'The country traversed by the River Bug offers many advantages for
 obstinate defense. Along much of its course the rivers banks are very dif- ficult, and the country beside for long
 stretches is heavily wooded. Ex- tremely bad roads, and lake, pond and
 marsh by the way add to labors of
 military advances here.
 This river forms one of the strong est lines of defense In the west of the
 Russian empire. A network of feed ing railways are laid to pour men and
 munitions into any sector of this line
 from any interior point in the empire. From Petrograd to Odessa, railways converge upon the River Bug. Fur
 thermore, the river line is para1leled
 along its entire Russian Poland course .I-just as Germany's eastern frontier
 Is paralleled-by a railroad, passing from the fortress in the north. Oso-
 vice, through Bielostok, Bjelsk, the
 fortress Brest Litovsk, Kovel, to Vlad- inir Volynsk, in the south, just beyond
 the Galician frontier. Another branch of this railway runs from Brest Lit ovsk close beside the river, finally crossing the Bug and terminating al
 Kholm.
 "The Bug rises in Galicia, about 5C miles east of Lemberg; flows west tC ! KamIonka Busk, about 2S miles east
 northeast of Lemberg, and then turns | north northwest to the Russian bor-
 der. In Russia. for great part oi it's course. it flows north along tho eastern borders of Poland. Northeast } of Warsaw, it leaves the Polish border . turns west. and joins the Vistula river 25 miles northwest of Warsaw, at the powerful fortress of Novo Georgfevsk To its junction with the Vistula, tht Bug travels 450 miles. more than 50' z miles of which are navigaDle. From Brest Litovsk, 1t is navigableS fol f larger river boats, while above thu
 fortress it is navigated by barges ana
 rafts.
 'In peace times, a considerable traf i f1c is carried on upon the Bug. 1t |
 a very important factor fin the Rus
 sian lumber trade. great rzfts of log being foated down it's course iron
 the rich forests that line it's uppe reaches; Grain. fowls-principall.
 Polish peasant is. widely noted-an' [ cattle are also transported on the river The Bug is connected by waterway 5 with the interior of Russia, and 1t 7 water-borne freight can be sent int, 3 southern or northern Russias as wei l as into Germany. Canals connect tn . Bug with the Pripet. and thus, witt : the Dnieper river and Cfimean land f and with the Niemen river.
 ''The Bug river offers one of the bes e lines in the west for the quick am uninterrupted concentration of Russian armies and their supplies. It als' f rec1ces the amount of frontier to b r held by a great number of miles-ai = advantage, however, shared In b. e friend and foe. Sti1l, q falling bacl . upon this line would necessftate tn . surrender of Warsaw, one of the rich e est manufacturing cities of Russia, Q v iinnumerable industrial towns and VII { lages, and of tens of thousands Q
 acres of richly productive farmlands Russian Poland, beyond the Bug, i \ an industrial center of the -Muscovtt 5 empire, great granary, and an i'm V portant source of leather and beef.