the obstacle which had arrested the
advance of the army did not continue.

The cavalry, baggage animals, and a portion of the infantry at once
continued their way down the valley, while the rest of the infantry
remained behind to widen the road sufficiently for the elephants to
pass along. Although the work was pressed on with the greatest vigour it
needed three days of labour in all before the elephants could be passed
through. The animals were by this time weak with hunger, for from the
time when they had turned aside from the valley of the Isere the Alps
had been wholly bare of trees, and the ground being covered with snow,
no foliage or forage had been obtainable to eke out the store of flour
which they carried for their consumption. Nor was any wood found with
which to manufacture the flat cakes into which the flour was formed for
their rations.

The elephants once through, the march was continued, and, joining the
troops in advance, who had halted in the woods below the snow level,
the column continued its march. On the third day after passing the gorge
they issued out on to the plain of the Po, having lost in the fifteen
days' passage of the Alps great numbers of men from the attacks of
the enemy, from the passage of the rapid torrents, from falls over the
precipices, and from cold, and having suffered still more severely in
horses and baggage animals.

Of the 59,000 picked troops with which he had advanced after the
conquest of Catalonia, Hannibal reached the plains of Italy with but
12,000 African infantry, 8,000 Spanish and Gaulish infantry, and 6,000
cavalry--in all 26,000 men. A small force indeed with which to enter
upon the struggle with the might and power of Rome. Of the 33,000 men
that were missing, 13,000 had fallen in the passes of the Pyrenees and
the march through Gaul, 20,000 had died in the passage of the Alps.

CHAPTER XIII: THE BATTLE OF THE TREBIA

Well was it for the Carthaginians that Hannibal had opened
communications with the Gaulish tribes in the plains at the foot of
the Alps, and that on its issue from the mountain passes his army found
itself among friends, for had it been attacked it was in no position to
offer a vigorous resistance, the men being utterly broken down by their
fatigues and demoralized by their losses. Many were suffering terribly
from frostbites, the cavalry were altogether unable to act, so worn out
and enfeebled were the horses. Great numbers of the men co