ally attained by first pushing forward
along the plain and then turning right-handed into the hills.

From the plain, the country rises, in places through the intermediate
foot hills of the Shephelah, in places more abruptly and directly into
the mountains of Judaea. These mountains are of limestone formation,
terraced, where possible, for cultivation, and often wooded with olive
trees or tilled as corn patches or vineyards. The scenery is rugged and
pretty, the hill-sides generally steep, sometimes precipitous. This is
the Palestine of the picture books. Deep gorges have been cut out by
water action; but, as no rain falls throughout the summer months, these
are, for the most part, but dry watercourses. There are a few good
springs to be found in the valleys; the villagers upon the hills are,
however, mainly dependent upon cisterns constructed in the rock, in
which they catch as much water as possible during the winter rains.
These mountains formed the stronghold of the Israelites, who never
maintained sway for any length of time over the lower surrounding
country. The mountains abound in ruins and are rich in caves, such as
may have been the Caves of En-gedi and Adullam. One of the caves
witnessed a lurid scene in our mountain fighting. A party of the enemy
had established themselves in a cave with machine guns. Ghurkhas
attacked, and the enemy, after inflicting casualties, thought to make
good their escape by a back exit. But outside there were other Ghurkhas
lying in wait, and, as the enemy emerged, they killed them all.

We have seen that the general formation of this range of mountains is
like the backbone of a fish. We should therefore expect to find
communications from north to south easy enough along the "spine" or
ridge, but difficult on either side, where there would be a succession
of "ribs" or spurs to be crossed. This is the case. There is only one
first-class road from north to south through this hill-country, namely,
that which runs along the ridge from Samaria through Nablus, Jerusalem,
Bethlehem and Hebron to Beersheba. Communications from east to west are,
however, more easy along the spurs and intervening valleys. To attempt
an advance northwards, from spur to spur, is tedious work; after a
comparatively short push a pause is necessary to enable roads to be
constructed for bringing forward guns and supplies. We had an
illustration of this in March, 1918, when a forward move of this
character met at f