iver Isonzo
with hills along its eastern bank. The upper part of this stream,
above Salcana, is a ravine; then comes six miles of comparatively
level ground in front of Gorizia; then the hills begin again and
sweep round to the seacoast by Monfalcone. What this front lacks in
natural defenses had been amply supplied before the war opened by
Austria with artillery and men. Toward this narrow twenty-mile
stretch, and especially toward the plain before Gorizia, tended, in a
sense, however, all the operations of the Italian strategists. The
engagements fought during the first of the Italo-Austrian struggle all
had their bearing upon the great offensive launched later against
Gorizia.

But the natural lay of the land was by no means the only consideration
with which the rival generals had to deal. In respect to lateral
communications Italy had the advantage. Behind her invading armies
stretched an elaborate system of railways through her northern
provinces. Austria had a railway running through the whole curve of
the frontier, but owing to the difficulty of breaking through from the
hill valleys this system had few feeders. This lack of branch lines
meant that Austria had to concentrate any offensive at certain
definite places--Trent, Tarvis, and Gorizia. Italy aimed at these
points and one more, Franzensfeste, the junction of the Pusterthal
line with the railway from Innsbruck to Trent. If she could take this
point she could cut Austria's communications in the whole Trentino
salient. But Franzensfeste was the most difficult of any of these
local points for Italy to reach, for south and east of it lay the
bristling system of the Dolomites.

The successive revelations of Italian strategy during the first months
of the war brought few surprises. Austria had her hands full in the
Carpathians just then and was unable to take advantage of the
opportunities for swift offensive which her frontier positions
offered. It was a foregone conclusion that the first advance would
come from the Italian side and the direction of that movement was not
long in doubt. Its objective was Trieste, the Austrian peninsula, and
the hills of Styria which sweep to Vienna. There lay the country where
modern armies could maneuver. At the same time the whole northern
boundary must be watched to prevent Austrian forces from the Trentino
cutting the communications of the invader and attacking him in the
rear. Therefore General Cadorna, the Italian comman