The Austrian Tyrol was before me, a panorama of wondrous mountain peaks stretching away into the mist of the far distance, and towering above the highest was the mighty Ortler, crowned with eternal snow, and positively awe-inspiring in its stately grandeur. My reverie was abruptly disturbed by the boom of a big gun. I was back again amongst realities, yet how puny did the biggest efforts of mankind at war appear in comparison with all this splendour of nature. Had it not been for the echoes produced by these giant peaks the report of even the heavy artillery would probably have scarcely been heard. The Swiss and Austrian frontiers meet on the summit of a Brobdingnagian cliff of rock of strange formation, which towers above the Forcola. Through field glasses the frontier guards and the blockhouses are plainly discernable. This overhanging proximity of the enemy strikes me as constituting a constant menace to the Italian position, as every movement within its _enceinte_ is visible from the height above. The fact also of the Austrian and Swiss frontier guards being so close to each other as to be able to fraternise must inevitably conduce to espionage. Doubtless, however, all this has been well considered by the Italians, and they are not likely to be caught napping. Rateau and I had a very cordial reception, and the officer in command of the position took a visible pride in showing us round it and explaining everything, whilst I made a lot of interesting sketches. The ability and rapidity with which it had been constructed and fortified were worthy of the very highest praise. Such a fortress brought into being in so short a time and at such an altitude was in itself such a marvel of military capacity that one was lost in wonder at it all. Evidently no obstacle presented by nature deterred its accomplishment. In the emplacements were guns of a calibre one certainly never expected to see except in the valley, and you were lost in conjecture how the feat of getting them up here was achieved. Everything was approaching completion, and by the time the snow set in and the position would be practically cut off from the lower world it would be a big, self-contained arsenal with all that was necessary for carrying on its share of the general scheme of operations on the Frontier without extraneous assistance should the rigours of the Alpine winter render it unapproachable. In the warfare in the mountains, positions develop more or less into isolated communities, as the men seldom have an opportunity of going down to the busy world below, besides which the summer is so brief at these altitudes. Even on the date we were at the Forcola, the twentieth of August, there were already unmistakable signs of the approach of winter; the air was decidedly frosty—there had been a fall of snow a few hours previously, and most of the peaks were powdered with silvery white.