August 30, 191 7 
LAND & WATER 
steep from the westirn side, upon which the Italians are 
attacking, than, upon the eastern side wliere the Austrian 
batteries and concentrations of men are conc2aled. There 
is a very sharp dip down southward towards the sea. 
The despatches relating to the figjiting of last Sunday (the 
latest upon which this article can be biased) 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 " Sejla ") 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 fighting, 
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 Mfinte Santo 
comes at the end of the ridge which (luminates the great gorge 
of the Isonzo above Gorizia and overlooks all the lower coun- 
try at its feet ; it was a sort of sentinel in perpetual observa- 
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 points of the ridge 
when Kuk and Vodice, the lesser summits, its neighbours to th ; 
north, had fallen. This high(*st of the crests remaining in enemy 
hands had detracted from the value of the other cai)tures. 
Important, however, as the .Monte Santo is both as a symbol 
and as a tactical point, we must appreciate that its fall has 
been due to the much larger find more important busineS". of 
which the week-end was full to the north of it, and that busi- 
ness was the carrying of the Bainsizza plateau, which the 
countryside has called for centuries the " Plain of the Holy 
(Ihost." 
To understand the formation and position of this table land 
i.^ very important to our com prehension" 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 Austrian 
line, but the chances of a war of movement developing here 
are considerable. 
The Isonzo is a mountain river, running down from the high 
.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. 
I'pon the left, or eastem. bank of the river, this wall is the 
south-western escarpment of the Bainsizza plateau. It ha; 
the three main summits just quoted — crests higher than its 
average. The Monti Santo, the highest, at the south, then the 
X'odice, then the Kuk. At the Kuk summit the escarpment 
turns rounrl northerly, receding somewhat from the river and 
along the valley, to widen until it reaches its northernmost 
point at Hill 67b, about five miles away. .\t this point the 
escarpment of this nearly isolated plateau turns as sharply 
to the south-eastward, where the rapidly deepening 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 
brings one back again to the Monte Santo. Beyond the 
Pustala gorge arc the heights above Gorizia, of which tlie 
