mail what colonel brought had a letter discharging me an' threatenin' jail an' worse.'

"You old fool," I says. "You don't need no job you that's saved a fleet an' that's able to make a dang sight finer livin' raisin' mushrooms than what colonel gits fer runnin' the whole district." He made me tired.

"Dave," he says, "I've thought it all over an' I'd give all the mushrooms from here to Halifax afore I'd leave the ol' fleet -an' you fellers."

I knowed how he felt. "Who said anythin' about you leavin'? It's your fleet now, ain't it? You saved it!"

"But colonel's name is on the letter, Dave the dischargin' letter; and they ain't no gittin' back of that."

"Gimme that letter!" I says.

He hauled her out an' handed her over. I headed fer colonel, where Taylor was talkin' to him. When he seen me, he come over to where I was, seemin' to be glad to git rid of Cap'n Taylor's company. I showed him the letter an' he read it. Then I told him all about the mushrooms an' what Cap'n Jim had done. Colonel was interested.

"Let's have a look at the inside of the mushroom barge," he says. We climbed aboard an' colonel went ahead of me into the for'd hatch. Froze solid in the slab o' ice that took the pressure from the outside drift, was hunderds an' hunderds of fine mushrooms.

We clum out. "Let me have that letter," says colonel. I handed him the letter. We went ashore to where Cap'n Jim was standin'. Colonel held the letter out to him. "Cap'n Jim," colonel says, gentle-like an' smilin', "this letter is signed with a rubber stamp by one of my clerks. He wrote it. It does not concern you or me."

Colonel looked away across the hills to where the houses of Chester laid shiverin' in the snow. He seemed tryin' to remember somethin'. Finally he spoke: "Your wife an' boys live over there, don't they, captain?"

Cap'n Jim swung a pointin' finger toward his home. Colonel looked at the house a minnit or two an' then he turned back to Cap'n Jim. "Go over there for a day or two an' report to me at St. Louis next Monday. It'll be all right with Captain Taylor, for he is to be transferred. As soon as the plans are drawn I want you to supervise the work of placing concrete collision bulkheads in all the barges in this fleet. Until the spring work starts you'll be superintendent of this construction work-at two hundred a month."

Colonel was tearin' the dischargin' letter into little pieces while he talked.

Cap'n Jim was battin' his eyes fast, like a old owl. "Gosh, colonel!" he says, "a superintender-me!" He turned around to me an' hauled the rabbit-foot out of his vest pocket. "Here, Dave," he says; give this to some dang deck-hand."

T

HE English front in France and Flanders covers about a hundred and fifty miles, and in each of the three regions in which the bitter struggle has been carried on its character has differed widely. To the north, in Flanders, there has been a comparative lull since the terrible conflicts near Ypres in November, 1914; on the other hand, in Artois, which may be called the centre, fighting has been almost continual and has redoubled in violence since the British offensive at Easter, 1917, while Picardy, to the south, is the scene of the battle of the Somme and the advance toward Saint Quentin.

It may be interesting to study these regions separately, in order to see how much their geographical characteristics have influenced the military operations held within their limits; a study for which I feel myself to be somewhat prepared by six years' residence at the University of Lille, and personal knowledge of the geographical problems presented by these districts.

I. FLANDERS

EVER since the month of November, 1914, the English army has been engaged in the greater part of Flanders, from Dixmude in the north to La Bassée in the south, where the heights of Artois begin. Thus Flanders may be considered as especially the battle-ground of the English forces, and at first sight no country looks more favorable to the movements of armies. The surface is almost everywhere exceedingly flat; here and there it is broken by little low hills, but as a rule it stretches out as a vast plain until its limits melt into the blue horizon, and there are no irregularities of the ground to hinder the advance of troops, except in

two or three districts of limited extent. The country is rich, densely populated, with numerous roads and paths; intensive agriculture has accumulated wealth; meat and vegetables, wheat and beer, may be had in abundance. Innumerable villages, large and small, as well as isolated houses and farms, are scattered over the country in every direction; there are also many railways both of broad and narrow gauge; five lines come together at Ypres, five at Armentières, six at Hazebrouck, while tramways along the roads add to the network of communication. Furthermore, there are serviceable waterways: the Yser, the Lys, the canal of La Bassée. With such surroundings it certainly seems as if nothing could be easier than to move large masses of troops, to lodge, and to feed them.

And yet all this is misleading, and, in point of fact, Flanders is an impracticable country, as has been proved by the history of this and also of preceding wars. Large armies have seldom ventured on its territory, and when they have done so it has been the worse for them. As far back as when Philippe le Bel was king of France his adventurous knights came to grief in a canal near Courtrai, and farther back still we find the ponderous army of Philippe-Auguste stuck helplessly in the mud in the neighborhood of Ypres-an episode which repeated itself when the Germans were caught by the inundation of the Yser. We may also notice that the troops of Louis XIV carefully avoided going into Flanders, and that the great battles which have given Belgium its name of "the cockpit of Europe" have taken place much farther south, toward Charleroi and Waterloo.

The reason why, in spite of appearances, Flanders does not lend itself to military operations may be found in the climate

Урасо

Neure

Wytschaete, Messines, Zonnebeke and Passchendaele, are nowhere more than four hundred and fifty feet high, sometimes not more than a hundred and fifty; nevertheless, they are capable of present

Armenti

Deuce

The fighting area in Flanders.

of the Yser and the wide depression of the Lys, and here the surface of the ground, the nature of the soil, the climate, the houses, the growth, are all so many obstacles, not always apparent but ever present, to the successful advance of troops. In the first place, the neighborhood of Ypres is the most hilly in all Flanders. To the south and east of the town the ground rises in a series of little knolls which would be insignificant anywhere else, but gain importance here by contrast with the stretches of flat country surrounding them. These hillocks, which all have names, such as Mount Kemmel,

Lille

ing serious difficulties.

Their sides are often steep, because of the difference in hardness of the strata of rock, clay, and sand superimposed on their slopes. Vegetation is rank and strong; the water which trickles down the sides of the hillocks cannot penetrate the underlying bed of clay; it therefore collects into shallow pools, and, favored by this continual moisture, the slopes are thickly covered with grass and trees. As we look in one direction groups of firs stand out black in contrast to the bright green of elms; in another, hop-fields bristle with leaning poles, bound together by the tough tendrils. And by settling, naturally enough, on these pleasant heights, the inhabitants have multiplied obstructions. Private parks, with their high walls, are so many little fortresses; many villages were established there long ago for purpose of observation and defense; Messines, Hollebeke, Becelaere, names now familiar to us all, are on the top of these hillocks. It was by clinging desperately to these poor peaceful little villages, or to elevations like the famous "Hill No. 60," that the Allies were able to break the force of the German onslaughts and win the battle of Ypres.

Chang

de Bataille de

Flandre

On either side of these hills, each a battle-field, the ground falls away gradually into a vast plain; its surface becomes more and more even, until it looks as if there could be nothing in the way of troops. There are, however, many ob