he
matter of supply, transport, and the care of the wounded. Every
stretcher bearer here finds himself continually exposed to the peril
of falling over a precipice together with his wounded.

"As the sun rose the great peaks of the Dolomites stood out like pink
pearls, set here and there in a soft white vapor. Coming through a
Canadian-looking pine forest, with log-house barracks, kitchens, and
canteens beneath one such peak, I was reminded of Dante's lines:
'Gazing above, I saw her shoulders, clothed already with the planet's
rays.' But poetic memories soon faded before a sniper's bullet from a
very near Austrian outlook.

"At one spot the Austrian barbed-wire entanglements were clearly
visible through glasses on a neighboring summit at a height of over
10,000 feet. A few yards below in an open cavern protected by an
overhanging rock the little gray tents of Italy's soldiers were
plainly seen. It may be a consolation to our men on the Somme and in
Flanders that the war is being waged here in equally dangerous
conditions as theirs.

"The Italians have driven back the Austrians foot by foot up the
almost vertical Dolomite rock with mountain, field, and heavy guns,
and especially in hand-to-hand and bomb fighting. Sniping never ceases
by day, but the actual battles are almost invariably fought by night.

"The only day fighting is when, as in the famous capture of Col di
Lana and more recently at Castelletto, the whole or part of a mountain
top has to be blown off, because it is impossible to turn or carry it
by direct assault. Then tunnels sometimes 800 yards long are drilled
by machinery through the solid rock beneath the Austrian strongholds,
which presently disappear under the smashing influence of thirty or
forty tons of dynamite. Then the Alpini swarm over the debris and
capture or kill the enemy survivors and rejoice in a well-earned
triumph.

"One needs to have scaled a mountainside to an Italian gun's
emplacement or lookout post to gauge fully the nature of this warfare.
Imagine a catacomb, hewn through the hard rock, with a central hall
and galleries leading to gun positions, 7,000 feet up. Reckon that
each gun emplacement represents three months' constant labor with
drill, hammer, and mine. Every requirement, as well as food and water,
must be carried up by men at night or under fire by day. Every soldier
employed at these heights needs another soldier to bring him food and
drink, unless as happens in som