f the hills,
which have no terrors for them at any season, and their self-contained
groups, which are practically the equivalent of divisions, contain
very tough fighters and have achieved remarkable results during the
war. Their equipment, clothing, artillery, and transport are all well
adapted to mountain warfare, and as the whole frontier has been
accurately surveyed, and well studied from every point of view, the
Italians are at a great advantage in the hills.

[Illustration: An Austrian entrenchment high up on a mountainside. The
soldiers are pulling barbed wire devices up the slope in order to
strengthen their defenses.]

"There is nothing new about these troops, whose turnout and tactics
have been a subject of admiration for many years, but in this war much
has changed, in the Alps as elsewhere, and the use of the heaviest
artillery in the mountains is one of the most striking of these
changes. One finds oneself under the fire of twelve-inch howitzers
from the other side of mountains 10,000 feet high, and it is no
extraordinary experience to find Italian heavy howitzers sheltering
behind precipices rising sheer up several thousand feet, and fighting
with Austrian guns ten miles distant, and beyond one, if not two, high
ranges of hills. One imagines that the Austrians must have many
twelve-inch howitzers to spare, for there are, to give an example, a
couple near Mauthen, beyond the crest of the Carnic Alps, and other
heavy artillery in the same district hidden in caverns. In these
caverns, which are extremely hard to locate, they are secure against
shrapnel and cannot be seen by airmen. I fancy the Austrians use
galleries with several gun positions, which are used in turn.

"This style of fighting compels the Italians to follow suit, or at
least it is supposed to do so, and then, as no road means no heavy
guns, there comes in the Italian engineer, the roadmaker, and the
mason, and in the art of roadmaking the Italian is supreme.

"They are very wonderful, these mountain roads. They play with the
Alps and make impossibilities possible. Thanks to them, and to the
_filovia_, or air railway on chains, it is possible to proceed from
point to point with great rapidity, and to keep garrisons and posts
well supplied. The telephones run everywhere, and observing stations
on the highest peaks enable Italian howitzers to make sure of their
aim. I am not quite sure whether the Italians do not trust too much to
their tele