e places the devoted wives of the
Alpini act nightly under organized rules as porters for their
husbands.

"The food supply is most efficiently organized. A young London Italian
private, speaking English perfectly, whom I met by chance, told me,
and I have since verified the information, that the men holding this
long line of the Alps receive a special food, particularly during the
seven months' winter. Besides the excellent soup which forms the
staple diet of the Italian as of the French soldiers, the men receive
a daily ration of two pounds of bread, half a pound of meat, half a
pint of red wine, macaroni of various kinds, rice, cheese, dried and
fresh fruit, chocolate, and thrice weekly small quantities of cognac
and Marsala.

"Members of the Alpine Club know that in the high Dolomites water is
in summer often as precious as on the Carso. Snow serves this purpose
in winter. Then three months' reserve supplies of oil fuel, alcohol,
and medicine must be stored in the catacomb mountain positions, lest,
as happened to an officer whom I met, the garrisons should be cut off
by snow for weeks and months at a time."

Mr. Hilaire Belloc vividly pictures some mountain positions and
observation posts in the high Dolomites as follows:

"There stands in the Dolomites a great group of precipitous rock
rising to a height of over 9,000 feet above the sea and perhaps 6,000
feet above the surrounding valleys, one summit of which is called the
Cristallo. It is the only point within the Italian lines from which
direct and permanent observations can be had of the railway line
running through the Pusterthal. In the mass of this mountain, up to
heights of over 8,000 feet, in crannies of the rock, up steep couloirs
and chimneys of snow, the batteries have been placed and hidden quite
secure from the fire of the enemy, commanding by the advantage of the
observation posts the enemy's line with their direct fire. One such
observation post I visited.

"A company of men divided into two half companies held, the one half
the base of the precipitous rock upon a sward of high valley, the
other the summit itself, perhaps 3,000 feet higher; end the
communication from one to the other was a double wire swung through
the air above the chasm, up and down which traveled shallow cradles of
steel carrying men and food, munitions, and instruments. Such a device
alone made possible the establishment of these posts in such
incredible places, and the pe