August 30, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
steep from the western side, upon \yhidi the Italians are 
attacking, than upon the eastcirn side where the Austrian 
batteries and concentrations of men are concaaled. There 
is a very sharp dip down southward towards the sea. 
The despatches relating to the fighting of last Sunday (the 
latest upon which this article can be based) make it clear that 
the mountain has not yet fallen to any direct assault, but also 
shows' us that our Allies are making a'strong effort to turn the 
Hermada from the north, where the Southern Italian troops 
had forced their way to Selo (the Slavonic " Sella ") on the 
escarpment of the plain: since Friday last they have 
been struggling to reach the summit of the Stara Lokva rise, 
half a mile beyond the ruins of Selo and 120 feet above them. 
On the northern end of the line beyond Gorizia, the heights 
dominating the Isonzo Gorge are now completely in the hands 
of our Allies. The last and highest summit, the Monte Santo 
which had resisted all the efforts of the earlier summer fightmg, 
fell during the late hours of Friday last, the 24th. 
The capture of the Monte Santo has struck the imagination 
of all and has been very properly made the occasion of wide- 
spread rejoicings throughout Italy, for the Monte Santo 
comes at the end of the ridge which dominates the great gorge 
of the Isonzo above Gorizia and overlooks all the lower coun- 
try at its iaet ; it was a sort of sentinel in perpetual obser\-a- 
tion of the whole region eastward to the Venetian plain and 
southward to the Carso. Moreover, in the great attack of 
May last it alone had resisted of all the ix)ints of the ridge 
when Kuk anil N'odice, the lesser summits, its neighbours to the 
north, had fallen. This highest of the crests remaining in enemy 
hands had detracted from the value of the oth?r captures. 
Important, however, as the Monte Santo is both as a symbol 
and as a tactical ])oint, we must appreciate that its fall has 
been due to the much larger and more important busmes^ of 
which the, week-end was full to the north of it, and that busi- 
ness was the carrying of the Bainsizza plateau, which tlie 
countryside has called for centuries the " Plain of the Holy 
' To understand the formation and position of this table land 
is very important to our comprehension of all that the Italians 
are doing. They have completely- smashed the Austrian , 
defensive organisation along the escarpment of it. We do 
not yet know the strength or position of the second Austnan 
line, but the clAnces of a war of movement developing here 
are considerable. xu i,- i 
The Isonzo is a mountain river, running down from the higli 
Alps in one of those deep valleys which are characteristic of 
such regions and entering just above Gorizia a narrow gorge, 
the walls of which stand frowning at one another about 
1,500 feet, upon the average, above the water. 
Upon the left, or eastern, bank of the river, this wall is the 
south-western escarpment of the Bainsizza plateau. It has 
the tlSree main summits just quoted— crests higher than Us 
average T*e Monte Santo, the highest, at the south, then the 
Vodice, then the Kuk. At the Kuk summit the escarpment 
turns round northerlv, receding somewhat from the nver and 
along the valley, to widen until it reaches its northernmost 
point at Hill 676. about five miles awav. At tins pomt the 
escarpment of this nearly isolated plateau turns as sharply 
to the south-eastward, where the rapidly deepenmg valley of a 
mountain stream, which falls into the Isonzo, cuts it off. 
It is joined to the mass of the Alps by a neck upon the east : 
The southern escarpment runs above the Pustala gorge and 
brintjs one back again to the Monte Santo. Beyond the 
Pustala gorge are the heiglits above Gorizia. of which the 
