2 3 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



view from any prominent height is always the same ; the eye 

 ranges over an expanse of hill-tops, now running in a succession 

 of long, billowy lines, now broken up like the wavelets in a 

 choppy sea, often green with forest, but just as often bare and. 

 forbidding. Clear mountain brooks or shallow streams rushing 

 over beds of gravel are never wanting in the valleys below, where 

 a rude long bridge, or curling smoke, or the presence of cultiva- 

 tion, leads you to observe the brown thatch of some huts clus- 

 tered under the lee of a hill." On the fifth day Mr. Campbell 

 " branched into untrodden country for the purpose of visiting a 

 remarkable range called the Keum Kang San, or Diamond 

 Mountain, where the most notable collection of Buddhist monas- 

 teries in Korea is to be found. There was a considerable change 

 in the configuration of the land as we passed eastward from 

 Keum-Seng. The valleys contracted into narrow, rocky glens, 

 forests of oak, pine, maple, and chestnut clothed the steeper and 

 loftier slopes, and cover sufficiently thick to delight the heart of 

 the sportsman abounded everywhere." A pass too steep for laden 

 animals had to be crossed with the help of bearers. It is known 

 as the Tan-pa Byeng, and is the western barrier of the Keum 

 Kang region. " The summit is about twenty-eight hundred feet 

 above sea-level. Thence in clear weather a view of the Dia- 

 mond Mountains was said to be obtainable, and tne name Tan- 

 pa, which means ' Crop-hair,' was given to the ridge in the 

 early days of Korean Buddhism, to signify that those who reached 

 this point had taken refuge in the cloister, and should sever their 

 connection with the world by parting with their hair. 



" From Tan-pa Byeng, a journey of sixteen miles in a north- 

 easterly direction brought us to Ch'ang-An-Sa, or the Temple of 

 Eternal Rest, a Buddhist monastery at the foot of the Keum Kang 

 San (Diamond Mountains). These mountains are a remarkable 

 section of the main range which practically determines the east 

 coast of Korea. Elsewhere the aspect of the chain is tame enough, 

 but in the north of the Kang-wen province it suddenly starts into 

 a towering mass of irregular, precipitous rocks, whose appearance 

 earned for them many centuries ago their present designation. 

 Viewed from the Eastern Sea, which is not more than thirty miles 

 off as the crow flies, their serrated outline is very striking, and 

 must always make them conspicuous. The district they occupy 

 is a fairly well defined one, some thirty miles long by twenty 

 broad. Few places are more renowned in any country than these 

 mountains are in Korea ; in popular estimation they are the beau- 

 ideal of scenic loveliness, the perfection of wild beauty in Nature. 

 I found that both Chinese and Japanese spoke and wrote of them, 

 but more because they are a Buddhistic center than for any other 

 reason. At Seoul a visit to Keum Kang San is quite fashionable, 



