FIRST BLOOD TO THE TURK. 657 MountKritiri, aprecipitous mass of whitemarble rocks, remained to the hands of the Greeks by evening.

Far away on the left, Hamdi Pasha was in possession of Mount Analipsis. But Colonel Kaklamanosand his brigade had takenup a newposition on the hills above Lake Nezeros. In thecentre, at the Meluna, things went on more slowly. Edhem Pasha, seated on a rug in the midstofhisstaff, watchedthe cannonade. From hour to hour he received telegrams from the more distant battlefields,and in the afternoon he sent off three battalions and two batteries to helpHamdi, and anotherreinforcement for Hairi Pasha. At four o'clock a shell blew up the the day after the battle was largely* due to their ammunition being exhausted, and no fresh supplies being nearer than Elassona. "Nearly- all the troop.," he says, "had been in the firing line, and had completely used up theirbattalion reserves, while the divisional ammunition had been left at Elassona. It wasnot,as it happened, a matter of very great importance, as the Greeks were evidently far worse off;indeed, in some respectsit prevented any further waste, as fire discipline and any check on the cartridges used hardly- existed. There was no lack of morale, but on the other hand there was very little attention to putting up sights or aiming,andcollective was entirely subordinated Greek blockhouse near the crest of the pass. The gun was laidby Riza Pasha himself. This successful shot was the signal for the infantry advance to begin in earnest. The Greek infantry fire had slackened perceptibly, and the Turks began to gain ground rapidly. They rushed the crests of the hills with the bayonet, but the Greeks did not wait to meet blade with blade. Blockhouse after blockhouse surrendered, and some prisoners were sent down to headquarters. When the sun set, the Greeks held only thesummitofMountMenexe, to independent firing. In the attack up the hills the extended formation was adopted rather by instinct than command, for when a company advancing in line found itself inconveniently hustled by the enemy's bullets,it merely spread out a bit more. But the absolute imperturbability of the men, their unhesitating and unwavering advance in the teethofthe most murderous fire, and the casual way in which individual- halted for the most ordinary purposes under a hail of shrapnel, convinced us that the result of the war was a foregone conclusion. It is hard for a GENERAL SMOLENSKI. (Photo: Pantzr>/o;t,'os, Athens.)

the hill on the north of the pass,where they had a blockhouse. The rest of the pass was in the hands ofthe Turks,and the bulk of itsdefenders had fallen back to Ligaria. The little Turkish garrison of the blockhouse marking the frontier had been rescued. The attack on Menexe went onbymoonlight. It was takenabout threea.m., and Edhem Pasha reported by telegraph to Constantinople that the whole of the border rangeexceptMount Kritiri was in the possession ofhis troops.

The first generalengagement of the war had tnded in a complete victory for the Turk. Iloughfrom first tolast the fighting had lasted more than forty hours, the losses on neither side wereheavy. There had been an enormous expenditure ofammunition,mostly at long ranges. According to Mr. Clive Bigham, the Times correspondent with the Turks, their inaction on 42 European to imagine even the most highly trained troops displaying such insouciance : and the only explanation to fall back upon is the original hypothesis that fear is an influence to which the Turkish brain is not susceptible."

At dawn on Monday, April ioth, Edhem Pasha had the main road into Thessaly open before him. The Greeks had been so sure of victory that they had thoroughly repairod the road from Larissa to the Meluna, with a view to their future line of communications into Macedonia. Larissa was not twenty miles away. Its buildings were in sight from the crest of the pass. With anything like vigorous action Edhem ought to have been into it by Tuesday morning. But Turkish armies and Turkish generals do not believe in haste. Prince Constantine was to spend a few days more in Larissa.