[Sidenote: Heavy impermeable soil.]
[Sidenote: Hills that are fortresses.]
On the other hand, the strata which lie on the surface--loam, sandstone,
and clayey sand--make a heavy, impermeable soil, quite infertile, in
which it is hard to raise anything, and which is largely given over to
woods. Thus, freedom of movement is impeded by deep ravines, ridges
running in all directions, and more or less dense forests; an offensive
is difficult, and the defensive easy. This is true in the immediate
neighborhood of Chateau-Thierry, where the ravines of Vaux, Brasles,
Charteves, Jaulgonne, and Treloup, and the valley of the Surmelin, slash
the plateau on either side of the Marne into fragments--into
forest-topped hillocks which are genuine fortresses, where the struggle
was terrific and where the Allies were able to advance only one step at
a time: on Hill 204, west of Chateau-Thierry, in the Bois de Mont
St-Pere, the forest of Feze above Jaulgonne, and especially on the spur
of the forest of Riz; and south of the Marne, at the broad, wooded
bastion of Saint-Agnan and at La Chapelle-Monthodon, where the fighting
was so intense from the 15th to the 20th of July.
[Sidenote: The villages and forests of the table-land.]
[Sidenote: Genuine mountain battles.]
This strip of broken table-land becomes broader again farther upstream,
above Dormans and Chatillon-sur-Marne. In that direction the plateau of
the Ile de France ascends until it is more than 260 metres above the
stream.
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