8 
LAND & WATER 
November 29, 1917 
conclusion of their first rapid adva ncc, found themselves at the 
foot of the hill occupying Anncux, touching Moeuvres, and just 
outside Fontaine. 
On Thursday last, before evening, as we have seen, Fontaine 
was for a few hours in British hands. I'pon Friday a strong 
counter-attack of the enemy re-entered it. 
Upon'Saturday a verj' fierce action began foj^ the capture 
of the hill. We had in the des]>atches relating to that day 
no definite accounts from eithci- side. Both were in general 
terms. The British to the effect that licights " about " 
Bourlon Wood had been mastered in the course of the day, 
partially lost again and then regained. The Germans to the 
effect that the British had penetrated into the wood and 
apparently even to Bourlon villaije, ending with a sentence to 
the effect that the wood had beem recovered and the village 
also. So far the description wa,s difficult to interpret. The 
British had never claimed full possession of the wood, still 
less of the village beyond, and so far as one can judge what 
really happened was a thrust into perhaps half of the wood 
and the permanent holding of the highest land just to the 
west of it, with perhaps an occasional thrust reaching the out- 
skirts of Bourlon village. Meanwhile, upon the right and 
upon the left Moeuvres and Fontaine were in enemy hands, but; 
suffering strong and repeated assault from the British. 
That would seem to be the general though cenfused aspect 
of Saturday's struggle. 
By Sunday the whole summit and nearly all the wood 
was clearly mastered. Bourlon village lower down, sloping 
to the hollow on the north was still in German hands, but the 
great obstacle and observation point was in British hands, and 
if it securely so remain the value of Cambrai is lost to tlic 
enemy. His great main railway is seen and rendered unusable 
at a range of only just over three miles, all the countryside 
is overlooked. 
Operations in Judea and Samaria 
The first part of the week's news with regard to the Pales- 
tine front principally concerns the threat to the only road now 
supplying Jenisalem. 
The left of the British line still stood last week covering 
Joppa, but faced by the new Turkish positions just before 
that town and running along the sliglit height which forms 
the watershed of the Auja River. But the centre was in 
movement, and the movement was clearly designed to threaten 
the only avenue whereby a retreat of the Turkish troops from 
Jerusalem and the positions south oi Jerusalem as far as 
Hebron can be effected and their munitionment and re-victual- 
ling assured so long as they remain in their present positions. 
There is, indeed, a possibility that these troops, were they cut 
off from the north, could retire eastward across the Jordan 
and reach the railway line which runs along the plateau of 
Moab. It depends upon their numbers, and upon whether 
the very imperfect tracks for such an operation have been 
improved during the war ; for the only known good road, or 
rather passable road, by which their supply can still be main- 
tained and their retreat assured is the road from Nablus- 
Shechem to Jerusalem, and it is upon their maintenance or 
loss of this road presumably that the ne.xt phase of the cam- 
paign will turn. 
W'e Shall understand the position better if we begin with a 
rough sketch of the ground. Judea and Samaria form the 
backbone of the mountainous system about fifty miles long 
from Hebron in the south to Nablus in the north, between 
two and three thousand feet, in general level, with the whole 
country to the south round Hebron above the 3,000 foot con- 
tour, and the peaks to the North also above it. This back- 
bone is not a ridge, but rather a plateau, the eastern wall of 
which is a very sharp descent into the deep trench of the Jor- 
dan and the Dead Sea— a trench varying in depth from six 
to 1,300 feet below the general level of the Mediterranean • 
therefore from 4,000 to over 5,000 feet below the general levels 
of Judea and Samaria. Beyond this trench is another moun- 
tain wall which supports the plateaux of Gilead and Moab to 
the east. 
On the West the mountain system of Judea and Samaria 
falls fairly sharply (more sharply in the south than in the north) 
to the foothills of the Sephalah and beyond these again there 
IS the sea plain. The mountain system which was the home 
01 the Jews in antiquity, and is the scene of the Old and the 
JNew restaments, may be given an average breadth of 14 or 
15 miles. It is, of course, far too complicated to be susceptible 
of any exact measurements, but that is the sort of width which 
It bears throughout its length. The foothills to the West 
are a belt of anything from eight to ten miles and the sea plain 
a belt varying from 10 to 20 at the very widest. 
Jerusalem, the only large town in the whole district, stands 
rather to the eastward side of this plateau, at a point only -^^ 
miles from the sea as the crow flics, which 33 miles are taken 
up as to about 10 or 1 1 of them bv the remaining width of the 
mountain plateau ; about eight by the foothills and the re- 
mainder by the sea plain. 
From the watershed of the central mountain system, which 
forms Judea and Samaria run rough and often deep and narrow 
torrent beds, nea rly all of them dry in summer, most of them 
now running with water, which join to form short rivers of the 
sea plain Ihese guUeys are more savage and difficult for 
travel in the south or Judean part of the range than in the 
Samariaii or northern part. The latter is much more open 
country than the former, full of cultivation, with contours more 
rounded and with more soil. The passage up from the sea plain 
to Judea and Samaria then, and especiaUv into Judea has 
always been by some one of the easiest of these gullevs ' 
At the northern end of the whole system there is a trench 
which cuts off the hills of Galilee and "the region of the Lake 
of Tiberias from the mountain mass of Samaria and Judea 
to the south. This trench is formed of the valleys of Esdraelon 
and Jezreel and provides a continuous way from the sea 
to the Jordan valley. 
This is by far the most distinctive crossing of the system, 
from east to west, and it has often been the road of great 
armies in the past. 
But there is another crossing which has also been of historiciJ 
importance during all recorded history. It runs through the 
heart of Samaria, and has put that district far more into con- 
tact with the general civilisation of the world than were the 
Judean hills to the south. This crossing may be called tlie 
Pass of Shechem or Nablus, and it is asspciated in the history 
of the Bible, as in that of mediaeval and modern times, with 
the neighbouring height and former capital of Samaria, 
" the Watch Tower," for Samaria was built upon an isolated 
hill in the valley leading down from Shechem to the sea and, 
therefore, commanded the passage. 
^n^u^ 
o 10 20 JoMiUs 
Jsen/3 wf .°V^'' P^'^°^ ^'^'^l"^ ^"d Samaria in th- 
present war i,, that it carries the main railway from thenortl 
Pat Sr ^rh'''"',"''^ ''' ''''''' ^"d depots'^soutTiward into 
llT u .'"''''''■^y ''^""^t use tht> rugged mountain 
M unt FbT'u,: °r ''r'P ^'^^'-J-^an to t^f gap betvveen 
<e Sis ihnJ it ?""* .^«?^''™- which stand like two 
sentmels above Shechem in the valley ; it runs down the 
S t^ ooS't "f ?r '"'IT' ^^°"g '"^^ easier'^untl; 
nninTif f hr .1^1^^'^'^'' '^"'^ Rainleh, shortly after which 
Csalenr the" o S:i'ScV- ^^T °" *J^ '^ ^'^l^ ^^ 
the chief avenue of ^^^^^ S^^'^'^T^, 
