such a well-directed and
furious curtain of artillery fire that the czar's troops could make no
further progress in spite of exceedingly heavy losses. Again Witoniez
and Kiselin were the center of desperate fighting which gradually
spread to the forest near Ostrow, north of Kiselin, and to the region
near the villages of Dubeschovo and Gulevitchie.

As the fighting progressed it became more and more evident that the
Austro-German command had determined to make a stand at the Stokhod at
any cost. The special correspondent of the London "Times," observing
the fighting from the Russian side, described its furiousness and the
ever-increasing resistance of the Austro-Germans as follows:

"From an observation point eighty feet above the ground in the swaying
foliage of a huge oak, a few versts distance from the battle field, I
obtained an extraordinary view of the country and of the Russian
artillery preparation. The country here is as flat as a board and
marshy, with the slow-flowing Stokhod oozing in the midst of beds of
water lilies. The difficulties of an advance are almost incredible,
yet our troops forded the river in places, passing mazes of barbed
wire sunk in the water.

"The cannonading continues day and night, at times reaching such
violence that it is impossible to distinguish sounds; it is simply a
continuous roar like thunder. At night the whole sky is illuminated by
bursting shells, searchlights, and star bombs. The town is filled with
wounded."

During the night of August 3 to 4, 1916, the stiffening of the
Austro-German defensive found expression in a series of very violent
German attacks against the village of Rudka-Miryanskaia, which formed
a very strong salient in the Russian positions. This little hamlet--it
is hardly more than that--is situated on the river Stavok, a tributary
of the Stokhod. Austro-German forces advanced from three sides.
Throughout the entire night the fighting for the possession of this
point was kept up. Attack after attack was repulsed by the Russians.
But in the early morning hours the latter were forced to evacuate the
village and to retreat more than 500 yards to the east. A few hours
later reenforcements arrived and the Russians once more gained
possession of the village, in the streets of which the sanguinary kind
of hand-to-hand fighting raged for hours. As a result the
Austro-German forces were finally thrown back beyond the river Stavok.
Before long, however, fresh Aust