of the landscape with bright splashes of colour. Apart from Nieuport and Dixmude it could boast but one town of any importance—Furnes the dismal, which German shells soon reduced to deserted ruins.

In this essentially agricultural country, boasting not a single manufacturing industry, a people of simple tastes, strongly attached to the fruitful soil which supplied most of their wants, lived a peaceful, sober life, into which, at regular intervals, the village fairs introduced an element of rude and boisterous gaiety. Property here has always been much subdivided, and large farms are quite the exception. So that in Belgium, which as a whole is so rich and thickly-populated, "Veurne-Ambacht" has always been regarded as a district that would afford an army the minimum of billeting facilities and of the various supplies required.

Communications, too, are few and far between. Except for the Nieuport-Dixmude railway—which follows the same course as our main positions—and a few very second-rate light railways, there is but one line, that connecting Dixmude and Furnes with Dunkirk; and it is only a single line without depôts or sidings.

Roads worthy of the name are rare enough. One of them, which begins at Nieuport and passes through Ramscapelle, Oudecapelle and Loo, runs almost parallel to the front, under the enemy's direct fire. To the west there is only one more, the high-road from Furnes to Ypres. This, also, is of great importance, although, being within range of the German guns, it is constantly subjected to bombardment.

Lateral communications towards the front are confined on the one side to the roads which connect Furnes with Nieuport and Pervyse; and on the other to the by-roads which the main Furnes-Ypres highway throws off towards Oudecapelle, Loo and Boesinghe.

The remainder of the system is made up of badly-paved or dirt roads, which are rendered useless by the lightest shower. Men and horses get bogged in a deep, sticky mud, from which they can extricate themselves only by the severest exertion. Of a truth the thick, clinging mud of "Veurne-Ambacht" is a persistent and terrible enemy, which one can only curse and fight without respite.

We may add that this inhospitable region is entirely exposed to an observer stationed at any of several favourable points east of the Yser. The plain is commanded on the north from the top of the Westende dunes; centrally, from near Keyem; on the south, by the Clercken heights, where the ground rises to Hill 43. Not a movement, not a single work undertaken by the Belgian troops escaped the enemy until the clever but very complex arrangement of artificial screens was evolved which now protects almost the whole of this vast plain from direct observation.

The above is a short and imperfect description of the region in which the Belgian Army has made a stand for the last three years, and which it has converted into a practically impregnable fortress. The features emphasised by us will enable readers to understand the very special character of the defence works which it has had to construct, and the amount of patient labour which was and still is imposed on it.

For Germany is not the only foe that the Belgian Army has to fight. It must struggle ceaselessly with the weather and the treacherous water which oozes from the inhospitable soil and gnaws at the foundations of defences whereon shells and bombs fall day in, day out. It lives in a country which has a disagreeable climate; where rain persists for two-thirds of the year; where dense and quickly-forming fogs spread an icy murk in the winter; where fierce storms rise suddenly and at times blow with extraordinary violence.

A General Review of the Works Constructed.

Before we proceed to a short account of the main defensive works, special attention should be drawn to certain constructive features common to them all.

We must remember that it is impossible to excavate even to a slight depth, except in some parts of the more southerly front, where the ground rises on a gentle slope. Drive a spade in but a few inches, and you strike water. The result is that defence-works of all kinds have had to be built with imported material.

A SANDBAG COMMUNICATION TRENCH

With Arches and Duckboards.

A COMMUNICATION TRENCH, SOUTHERN PART OF FRONT

Revetted with Sandbags and Hurdles.

FIRST LINE AS SEEN ACROSS THE FLOODS

A TYPICAL COMMUNICATION TRENCH

With protective Arches and Light Railway Track.

The trenches of the Belgian line are not the least like the narrow, deep ditches of the western front, of which we all have seen many illustrations taken from all points of view. Properly speaking, they are nothing else than ramparts raised above the ground. Behind these breast-works, built throughout with the greatest difficulty, the defenders tread on the natural ground, which thus really forms the bottom of what is incorrectly named a "trench."

The mere fact that one cannot excavate obviously makes it necessary to bring up from the rear—often from a great distance—all the materials required, including earth, hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of which is piled up in millions of bags.

The transport of these materials meant a very formidable task, especially in the early days. We have referred to the country's deficiency in means of communication of any value. So everything—sand-bags, stakes, tree-trunks, rails, cement, bricks, shingle, hurdles, barbed wire—has to be moved to the front lines by night on men's backs or in light vehicles able to carry only a strictly limited load, as a heavy one could not be got along the muddy and soft roads. Need one dwell upon the peculiar difficulties encountered in consolidating the ground sufficiently to bear the weight of special defences, such as those of concrete?

Not till long after the battle of the Yser, when the main positions had been adequately strengthened, could attention be given to improving the road system by building new roads and constructing additional railways of narrow and standard gauge. It is, therefore, not surprising that the recollection of the labour, more particularly that done during the winter, has remained a veritable nightmare to the men engaged upon the task. Shot and shell raked them incessantly. They had to toil knee-deep in water and mud, perished with cold, whipped by wind and rain. Owing to the depleted condition of the ranks, most of the fighting forces had, one may say, to mount guard continuously along an extended and still imperfectly consolidated front.

An appeal was made to the older classes, elderly garrison troops, or "old overcoats" as the soldiers picturesquely called them. Working tirelessly behind the lines, they "shovelled their fatherland into little bags," so they jokingly described it among themselves. These old fellows, assisted by a few resting (?) units, toiled day and night, preparing all the