Iditarod pioneer., 1915-11-06
RU3SlA'S THIRD DEFE1Nt51
 THJUGA2[D MILES LONG

Characteristics of the long tertiary line of Russian d&fonse, to which the MuscoyI e may retreat in consequence of the German successes south of Couriand, and which reaches from the narrows of the Gulf of Finland south 10 the Roumanian Danube, are discussed in bulletin issued by the National Geographical Society. Roughly estimated, this lLe extends more than lUJJ miles, crossing plains lake country, rolling hiIls imrassable swamps and through dense forest belts Almost throughout its whole extent winter is bitter and rigorous. With the German armies able to force the aban dcnment by the Russians of the Bre%t- Litcysk line and with a confirmation of their advance into the vast empire, the bat ties that are to decide the future fate of Europe may he fought out along this third line of Ruscian defensive. The bulletin reads:
 Probably the ,reariest belt in @ll Russia is that through which the third line of Rus san western defense IS traced. This line runs through the middle of the white Russians country, a land of backwardncss and pow erty. where an unfayoring nature and pc 2, whose history IS full of luckiess chance have alike proved stepmotherly to the Ga vecrment cf the country aid its Peop.e, Tke sections Cf this line of immediate in tnrest are those beginning at Riga. Ca tt9 Ral,ic. and following the broad Dv,na river t3 Du2nahuTg, turning south at Duen bur. ari following the railway through >."a, Lida. Paranovichi. into the rracEl-es swa1n}'- of Pinsk and the Pripet river to Royno, 120 miles ea@t-northeast of Lemberg
 The northern part of this line is rcn- forced by a line from Duena5urg, 5al:a' Wilma and Lida, which is based upon the marshes of Pinsk Much of the surface ot these marshes would be unfeasihla for ml- tary operations not undertaken in aero p.ancs and dlri1.hlcs.
 There is. however no other present stretch of railway so fayorably silua,e4 ar all with the Russian fr0nt as the stretch immediately behind the Brest-Li.ov X IHe, from Osowiec to koyel and that just b. tore the third Ine from Enna, through LiGa, B4raaovicii to Rovno. There lz one line of rail, running southeast tie HIna- Minsk Gonel stretch, and another line from Mjnsk southwest ut BaranoViehl and thence by the present outpost transverse line t. Rovno.
 More than 2CO miles of the line directly below M;nsk is through morass and marsh land, whose defense will be little cause ot worry to the Russians \ vast Nart of thls water logged area to the north of the frDet swanps has been included in great Rn'. sian reclamation projects, and millions ol roubles have been expended to obtaln a nropcr drainage for rhe land, whose thick crust of black earth, decaved vegetation, !. expected to be among the most fruitful future farm land in the black earth belt.
 "A little more than 100 miles north oi 1Iinsk. and reaching past Duenaburg IS I level country. ever and again broken by low swells. whose surface IS strewn with such :, wonderful maze of lakes as to far outrIVI the lakes of Masunrenland. The whole TO zion in the center of the line is thlcEly tor ested, primeyal. formidable forests brlsfIIng across many of its sections. Moreover, the whole area surrounding the third line ot defense is crossed by innumeraOie rivers riyerlets and creeks most of them toW1ng north and south. mobiljzing in the low P'n>k swamo region. and their waters finally ind ing their way westward into the mgh'T Dnieper and into the Black sea.