ing of the nature of the country, which is
entirely different to that in which the British Army is fighting. It is
one vast plain, undulating, the hills at most 200 feet higher than the
valleys, gentle slopes everywhere. The soil is rather chalky, poor,
barely worth cultivating; after heavy rain the whole plain becomes a sea
of shallow mud; and it dries equally quickly. The only features are the
pine woods, which have been planted by hundreds. From the point of view
of profit, this would not appear to have been a success; either the soil
is too poor, or else it is unsuitable to the maritime pine; for the
trees are rarely more than 25 feet high. As each rise is topped, a new
stretch of plain, a new set of small woods appear, just like that which
has been left behind.

[Illustration: ELEUTHERIOS K. VENIZELOS

The great Greek statesman who recently resigned as Prime Minister.

_(Photo from Medom Photo Service.)_]

[Illustration: LORD HARDINGE OF PENSHURST

Who, as Viceroy, rules England's Indian Empire during the critical
period of the war.]

The villages are few and small, most of them are in ruins after the
fighting in September; and the troops live almost entirely in colonies
of little huts of wood or straw, about four feet high, dotted about in
the woods, in the valleys, wherever a little water and shelter is
obtainable. Lack of villages means lack of roads; this has been one of
the great difficulties to be faced; but, at the same time, the movement
of wagons across country is possible to a far greater extent than in
Flanders, although it is often necessary to use eight or ten horses to
get a gun or wagon to the point desired.

From the military point of view the country is eminently suitable for
troops, with its possibilities of concealment, of producing sudden
surprises with cavalry, and of manoeuvre generally. It is, in fact, the
training ground of the great military centre of Chalons; and French
troops have doubtless been exercised over this ground in every branch of
military operation, except that in which they are engaged at the present
moment.

What commander, training his men over this ground, could have imagined
that the area from Perthes-lez-Hurlus to Beausejour Farm would become
two fortress lines, developed and improved for four months; or that he
would have to carry out an attack modeled on the same system as that
employed in the last great siege undertaken by French troops, that of
Sebastopol in