The First and Second Armies presented a total of 121,000 men; besides a detachment of 1 Dragoon and 3 Cossack regiments detached towards Poriechie. Three regiments of Cossacks had been detached to Riga and elsewhere. Two of Raievski’s infantry regiments, which had been the worst sufferers at Saltanovka, had been sent into the interior to recruit. The deduction under these headings may be fairly estimated at 4500 men. Wittgenstein’s corps and the reserves from Drissa and Dünaburg were on July 12th over 28,500 strong. The total effective of the Russian First and Second Armies early in August was therefore 154,000, showing a deficiency since June of 38,000 men. The fighting round Mohilev and Vitebsk had scarcely cost more than 6000 or 7000 men, and 5000 is a high estimate for losses in the rear-guard actions. The diminution from other causes was therefore 27,000. It is to be accounted for by sickness, by straggling and fatigue due to the long and painful marches, but also in large measure to desertion among the Lithuanian troops. These half-hearted men were probably no great loss, nor can it be said that the diminution was, on the whole, excessive; still it was serious. Over and above the abandoned magazines a portion of the material had been lost. Only eight guns had been captured in action, but some thirty more had been abandoned during the long marches through sands, swamps and forests; it says volumes for the Russian artillery that the number was not greater. If, however, the Russian losses had been serious, those of the French had been more so. The causes which diminished the strength of the Russians operated also against the invaders, and apparently the latter, for the most part used to a higher standard of living, were less able to endure hardships. Fatigue and heat might have been endured without any very serious results, but owing to the breakdown of the transport, the supplies of bread and biscuit could never keep up with the troops; even flour was rarely to be had. Meat was, as a rule, not lacking, but it was often of bad quality, the cattle being overdriven and frequently themselves ill-fed. A diet of poor meat, unseasoned, and unaccompanied by bread or vegetables, is not suitable for men who have to endure hard labour and fatigue under the rays of a Russian midsummer sun. Such bread and biscuit as were procurable were bad, and the ill-ground rye had serious effects upon the stomachs of men accustomed to well-prepared wheaten flour. Every effort was made to bring up adequate supplies, but the ill-fed and over-worked draft beasts were utterly unable to cope with the transport, and died in great numbers. The men, foraging for themselves, were rarely able to obtain more than small quantities of grain, and as there were no portable mills in the equipment of the troops it had to be consumed boiled. The water available in Lithuania was scanty in quantity and often bad; and in