Poland, the fifth largest country in Europe as to area and in consideration of its population, is bordered in the North by the Baltic and in the South by the Carpathians: Most of the country is flat or slightly undulating, but the 600 kins. long chain of the Carpathians forms a powerful wall in the South, with the High Tatra as its highest point. Numerous rivers cross Poland and in the North thousands of lakes, surrounded by vast forests, create a characteristic landscape. The West is more densely populated and most of the towns, the industrial centres, and advanced agricultural regions are to be found in that part of the country. The East is more sparsely populated, and the vast marshes and moors of Polesie, as well as the huge forest of Bialowieza, form a natural reserve unique in Europe, Thousand Years of Culture The thousand years old Polish culture left splendid monuments in many of the towns, of which the first in order of historical and artistic importance is Cracow, the former capital of the kings of Poland.
The radiating point of Cracow is the market place, with the church of St. Mary on one side, the Cloth Hall in the centre, flanked by the old City Hall, the chapel of St. Adalbert and the monument of the poet Mickiewicz. The old square. is quiet, its silence broken only by the deep toned bell of the tower of St. Mary's church. Every day at noon the clear musical note of a bugle is sounded from that tower, the note suddenly interrupted, That is the "broken note," in memory of that bugler who in 1241 warned from that very tower the inhabitants of the approach of the Tartars, and fell, his throat pierced by an arrow from thè enemy's bow.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.