Spread out at our feet, as it were, was the vast fertile plain of Friuli, every yard of which appeared to be under cultivation. The straight outlines of the fields were fringed by trees and presented a curious doll’s house and chequered appearance from this elevation. On the far side of this plain, about four and a half miles distant from where we stood, were the hills enclosing the valley of the lower Isonzo, a curious succession of undulating ridges rising in places to a considerable height. There was a good deal of smoke and mist hanging about, and standing out in sharp relief against it was the peculiar hog-back contour of the blood-soaked ridge of Podgora bristling with the charred and shattered stumps of trees. Even as we gazed, the distant boom of artillery reached our ears, and we saw shells bursting constantly along the summit and we knew that the attack which was costing so many gallant lives, was being vigorously pursued. To the right of Podgora lay the Carso, and in the hollow between was Gorizia, the goal towards which all thoughts in Italy were then turned. Three eminences loomed up in the mist beyond: Monte Kuk, Monte Sabotino, and Monte Santo, the last-named being destined to play important rôles in the future. In the far distance, and only faintly distinguishable, towered the Mountains of Ternova. The hum of aeroplanes was heard on all sides, and cleverly concealed anti-aircraft guns started firing viciously from time to time, more, however, with the object of keeping the enemy planes up as high as possible, then hitting them, as they seemed to run little or no risk, judging from the serene manner they hovered around. The conditions along the Isonzo Sector are practically the antithesis of those prevailing in the mountainous regions of the Cadorre, Trentino, and Carnia. Here the low foothills and plains present opportunities for operations which remind one of those being carried out in Flanders and Northern France; armoured trenches, of course, playing the principal part everywhere. Every attempt, therefore, by General Cadorna at a forward move in this direction had to be backed up, as it were, by defensive as well as offensive precautions, with the result that the entire Front of this region presents a series of lines of entrenchments and barbed-wire entanglements that are designed to afford an immediate protection should the advance fail, and a retirement prove necessary. Prescience is evidently an innate characteristic of the Italian Generals of to-day, and I was continually noting it along the Front, but nowhere was it more impressed on me than in this particular area. Between Cormons and Brazzano, at a place called Subida, is a veritable masterpiece of military engineering work.