Norwich bulletin., 1915-01-29
THE WAR PRIMER By National Geographic Society

Carpathian Mountains-"The Car pathians are among the best friends which Hungary has. They stretch in
 e-fung arc around the northern plain of the Magyar, from Pressbur on the Danube, near Vienna, to Orsova, on the Danube, across from Roumauia. 1 Thus, they form nearly the entire 1 boundary cast and north of the Dan ube, a line of about 800 miles in length. l The hollow of this arc, as well as it's most favorable approach lies toward Hungary. Troops pressing forward along this whole convex mounta&n
 sweep are facing the least favorable passes, and are operating with the least
 shelter from the biting winter.
 Besides having served the peoples who have lived in the Hungarian plain long and faithfully as 8 first-line de- fense against the wrath of their neigh
 bors in the north and east, the Car pathians have been just as partisan for the southern plain in times of peace. They shut out the stinging bleak winds which snap across the Steppe wastes direct from the frostiest ice fields of the north. While the Car pathian range is of low average height and has no great peaks, it's walls, nevertheless, are lofty enough to catch the Russian ice-winds and blizzards, and to defect them away from Hun gary. Again, in summer, the warm southern breezeS are caught and brok- en on the Hungarian hillsides. which thus prevent them from reaching Gal
 icia.
 ',rhe Carpathians are the eastern
 wing of the great central mountain system of Europe, and, likely one of its parts of most historic importance. They are steep and craggy in thetF northern exposures, while toward the south they fall away in lesser moun-
 tain groups and broken, sloping pla- teauS. With the exception of parts of the eastern ramif1catfons, which be- long to Roumania, this range lies
 wholly within AustrohIiungaria terri tory. It's total area E 72.60o square miles.
 ''The Carpatnians attain the great est height in the Hohe Tatra group.
 near the center of the range and just east and>south of CracoW, the chief city of Austrian GaIicia. The system Throughout the chain the passes over
 the mountains vary from to 230
 miles. The heights of the peaks in the Hohe Tatra group are 5000 feet and more. Gerisdorfer peak, the highest Lone in the entire system, reaches S, ,737 feet above the sea level. Thus. the Carpathian range has no mountain formation to compare with the more
 majestic groups or with those of OFT own Rockies. There are innumera,bIe peaks through this Hungarian line of defense, however, which vary from 5000 to 1000 feet in height, and these walls, together with the involved char acters of most of the passes. have made the Carpathians a very effective barrier against northern invaders. These mountains separate Hungary beginning on the west, from the Aus
 tr1an provinces of Moravia, Silesia, Galicia, BukoWina, Moldayia and the Kingdom of Roumania~ Some of the most miserably poor white people in the world live along this range and upon it's foreSt-covered sides They
 are mostly Slavs. Polish SIavs upon the bleak, more abrupt northern ex- pOsures, while the dWelIers of Slovak- land, 9 people almost become subject
 to the Magyar, live upon the southern
 mountains.
 "The Carpathian mountains are mountain groups in Europe Large
 quantities of gold, silver, copper. iron, lead, coal, petroleum, salt, zinc and other minerals are mined there, and many of the wilder parts of the sys- tenn have not yet been thoroughly prospected. There are a number of thermal and mineral springs in the mountains which are weiI-known as
 health resorts.
 Among tho higher convolutions of the Carpathians. a great number of which the Hungarians have named the "eyes of the sea-. The irregularity of cliff and gorge, and the beauty of these deep highland lakes, are the chief scenery advantages of the Carpath- ians. There are no glaciers, no patch es of perennial snow in the system. However, many of the higher peaks are great ugly masses Of bald rock and rock erosion