idst of this movement of the legs of animals, of
waving arms, of creaking and swaying loaded vehicles of manifold
origin, there climbs upward the weighty iron of an Austrian motor
battery, with an almost incomprehensible inevitableness, flattening
out the broken roads like a steam roller.

"From the first pass the baggage train sinks down into the depths,
again to climb upward on the next ridge, to continue striving upward
ever toward higher passages, slowly pushing forward toward its
objective against the resistance of numberless obstacles.

"The road to the battle field of to-day crosses the battle field of
recent weeks and months. Here there once stood a village, but only the
stone foundations of the hearths are left as traces of the houses that
have been burned down. Sometimes falling shots or the terrors of a
brief battle in the streets have reduced to ruins only a part of a
village. The roofs of houses have been patched with canvas and boards
to some extent, and now serve as quarters for troops or as stables. In
the narrow valleys the level places by the sides of streams have been
utilized for encampments. Here stand in order wagons of a resting
column and the goulash cannons shedding their fragrance far and wide,
or the tireless ovens of a field bakery. Frequently barracks, hospital
buildings, and shelters for men and animals have been built into the
mountain sides. Here and there simple huts have been erected, made of
a few poles and fir twigs. Often they are placed in long rows, which,
when their inmates are warming themselves by the fire at night turn
the dark mountain road into a romantic night encampment, and
everywhere fresh crosses, ornamented at times in a manner suggestive
of the work of children, remind us of our brothers now forever
silenced, who, but a short time before went the same road, withstood
just such weather and such hardships, talked perhaps in these same
huts of the war, and dreamt of peace.

"The saddest spectacle, however, were the lightly wounded, poor
fellows, who might under ordinary conditions have readily walked the
distance from the first aid station to the central gathering point,
but who here on account of the ice or muddy roads require double and
three times the usual time."

CHAPTER XXXVII

BATTLE OF KOZIOWA--OPERATIONS IN THE BUKOWINA

Owing to the topographical conditions under which fighting must be
carried on in the central Carpathians, some weeks might be exp