The road from Furnes to Ypres, near Westvleteren, in December 1915.
(See page [127].)
The Yser, a small coastal river, having its source in French Flanders empties itself into the sea between two jetties. Its shallow bed, dredged along the greater part of its course, describes a wide semi-circle. At its mouth, at Nieuport, the Yser and the canals which likewise end there, are closed by a series of locks, which shut out the sea at high tide and prevent it from invading the plain through the streams and canals.
The few roads and the Nieuport-Dixmude railway run along embankments seven to ten feet high.
Formerly, flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, tended by grey-coated shepherds, grazed in this plain. Immense fields of beet and turnips alternated with the meadows. Hedges, willows, clusters of bending poplars, and the roofs of the low farmsteads built on little hillocks, broke the monotony of the landscape. Here, where peace and prosperity reigned, the inundations and war have left a vast expanse of reeds, in which the roads, ruined farmhouses and a few broken trees stand out dismally.
The plain is bounded on the west by a line of wind-formed sand dunes planted with oyats. These dunes extend along the straight unbroken coast. To the east of Dixmude rises a series of heights, which, marking the beginning of the solid ground, are continued further east by the long unbroken crest of Clerken.
South of this crest stretches the Forest of Houthulst, now entirely devastated by shellfire.
The spongy nature of the soil makes it impossible to excavate to any depth, nor was there any high ground to mask the defence-works and batteries of artillery.