THE GRECO-TURKISH WAR. 650 and makes a detour by Pharsala to reach Trikhala.

Having thus described the theatre of war, the positions held by the opposing armies in the beginning of April may be briefly noted. Edhem Pasha had massed his mai.i strength about Elassona, threatening the Meluna and Damasi Passes, and leaving only small detachments to watch the various paths over the border range to the east and west of this central position. If theGreeksbroke through anywhere, he could rapidly send reinforcements to help his lieutenants. Till war was actually declared the Xerias a little above Tyrnavos, and following the crest of another range of hills which lies north and south in the bend of the river. A glance at the map will show how Turkey was thusleft a half-open doorintoNorthernThessaly.

The direct road from Elassona to Larissa and Athens ran over the watershed on the north of the Salamvria Valley (which now again formed the frontier) by the Pass of Meluna. But any force holding this pass and the paths over the hills to the east of it wouldbe in danger ofbeing cut off from its baseby aTurkish army marching down the Xerias Valley and gaining the he had three lines of supply-:(i) from Salonika by sea toKaterina, andthenbypack animals tothe front ;(2) byrail from Salonika to Karaveria Station, and then bypack animals through Serfidje to the front; (3) by railfromSalonika to Sorovitch Station, and then by a cart track to Serfidje and the front. This was a long route,but was useful for the artillery and heavy ammunition trains. As soon as war wasdeclared the firstroute wasclosed. An insurrection would have madeit difficult to keepopenthe othertwo. Bygreatefforts sufficient supplies had been got together for the troops.

ground near lyrnavos by the defiles of Damasi.

With such a frontier the Turks could use their superior numbers to compel the Greeks to dangerously divide their alreadyinsufficientforces.

The paths on the borderrange east of the Meluna Pass are onlypracticable for pack animals and mountain batteries. But on the extreme east of the frontier line near the sea there is a road from Platamona into theVale of Tempe, over the low wooded hills by which the spurs of Olympus sink to the coast. The Greek command of the sea made this road useless for the Turks.

EDHEM TASHA. (Fhoto:Abdullah, Ctnst.tn inoplc.)

At first all the infantry at the front were armed withthe Martini. There were tens of thousands of Mauser repeatersin store,but there had been a strange delay about issuing them. The Turks began the war with the same weapons they had carried in1878. But they werebetterorganised, better trained,and better supplied than in that disastrous war. General von der Goltz and his Prussian colleagues hadbeen busy reorganising the Sultan's army, and, despite endless difficulties,they hadaccomplished something.

In Epiriis, Ahmed Hifzi's little army held Janina and Prevesa,guarded the hill paths and bridges on the border, and kept a division opposite Arta watching the Greek forces assembled in and near that town, under Colonel Manos, for the invasionof the province.

There is another point to be noted as to this shessalian theatre of war. West of Larissa the ilain is boundedby the hills of a low range that uns south-eastwards towards the Volo Gulf. shis is the Kara Dagh, the Cynoscephalae, or 'Dog's Head" Hills of classic story. They livide Thessaly into two unequal portions. she Salamvria forces its way through them by he gorge of Gunitza, and they form the divisionbetween the lower valley of the river,about L.arissa, and its upper valley, about Trikhala.

Tow serious an obstacle these hills form is shown by the trace of the railway. It will be ;een how the line from Volo to Larissa comnunicates with the Upper Salamvria Valley— :ot by the course of the river, but by a branch line that begins at Velestino Junction