COKKA 



CORFE CASTLE 



477 



ha* caused the wasteful denudation of many hill- 

 aides. Tlie fauna is very considerable, and besides 

 tiger*, leopard-, deer, includes pigs, tiger-cats, 

 luulgers, foxes, heavers, otters, niarteiiK, and a 

 great variety of birds. Among tin- |>n>ductB are 

 nee, wheat, l>eans, cotton, hemp, mai/e, millet, 

 sesame, peril la. Cinseng grows wild in the Ran- 

 ge mountains, and in also much cultivated al>out 

 K.ii song, the duties upon it, notwithstanding much 

 smuggling, Yielding about half a million dollars 

 annually. The domestic animals are few. The 

 cattle are excellent (the. bull In-ing the usual beast 

 of burden), the ponies very small 1m t hardy, fowls 

 good, pigs inferior. Iron ores of excellent quality 

 are mined; and there are copper-mines in several 

 places. The output of silver is very small; in 

 some years a pood deal of gold is exported. The 

 principal industries are the manufacture of paper, 

 mats woven of grass, split bamboo blinds, oil-paper, 

 and silk. The total value of the foreign imports in 

 some j'ears has amounted to about 500,000, two- 

 thirds representing cotton goods ; the native exports 

 reached 136,666, chiefly beans and cowhides. The 

 foreign vessels entering the treaty ports number 

 between 500 and 600 in an average year, with a total 

 tonnage of 150,000 tons or more. Three-fourths of 

 the trade is with Japan, and over a fifth with 

 China ; British goods go by way of these countries. 

 Business has hitherto been done chiefly by barter, 

 imports being exchanged largely for gold dust, and 

 Japanese silk piece goods being a current exchange 

 for trade inland ; but in 1888 the mint at Seoul was 

 Approaching completion, and a beneficial effect on 

 commerce is anticipated from the introduction of a 

 convenient and sufficient coinage. Seoul is con- 

 nected with Taku and Port Arthur by telegraph. 



The population is variously estimated at from 

 eight to ten millions, of a mainly Mongolian type, 

 though pome assume that there is a Caucasic ele- 

 ment in the stock. Hair not quite black, and even 

 blue eves and an almost English style of face are 

 met with. The language is intermediate between 

 Mongolo-Tartar and Japanese, polysyllabic and 

 agglutinating. It has an alphabetic" system of its 

 own ; but Chinese characters have taken the place 

 of Corean in official writing and correspondence. 

 A grammar and dictionary by Ridel were published 

 At Yokohama in 1879. The philosophy or Corea is 

 Confucian, but in spite of great restrictions on Bud- 

 dhism there are numerous Buddhist monasteries. 

 Evidence of other religion exists in the miriok, half- 

 length human figures carved in stone. The govern- 

 ment is an hereditary and absolute monarchy, and 

 carried on through three ministers, besides whom 

 are ministers of six departments. Caste is very 

 powerful, and no office or even only local importance 

 is held by others than a noble. There is strictly no 

 well-to-do middle class, those who are not officials 

 being cultivators. In some districts the lower 

 classes live in a very squalid condition, and mud- 

 hovels thatched with straw are the usual houses 

 everywhere ; but beggars are rare, and absolute 

 distress is seldom met with. Corea is divided into 

 eight provinces or Do; three on the east and five on 

 the west coast. Seoul, the capital, has a pop. of 

 About 240,000. Phyong-yang, 36 miles from the sea, 

 on the Tai-dong, has a pop. of over 20,000. It is 

 the centre of a silk industry, and 20 miles off, at 

 Keum-san, are gold-washings. Kai-song is import- 

 ant as the capital of the old dynasty, and for its 

 cultivation of ginseng. 



The earliest records of Corea carry us back to 

 1122 B.C., when Ki-tze with 5000 Chinese colonists 

 brought to Corea Chinese arts and politics. Down 

 to modern times Corea has remained perfectly 

 secluded. Almost the first knowledge of Corea 

 obtained by Europe was through the shipwreck of 

 ome Dutchmen on the coast in 1653. The mis- 



sionary De Cespedea had, however, entered Corea 

 at the end of the Ittth century, ami from 1777 other 

 missionaries followed. In 1835 M. Maubant gained 

 a footing in Corea, but in 1866, after thousands of 

 converts had been put to death, the only three 

 Catholic missionaries left had to flee for their liven. 

 To avenge the death of the Catholics the French 

 sent an expedition, which was, however, repulsed. 

 Corea was tributary to China, though practi- 

 cally independent. But Japan steadily increased 

 its influence in the country, especially after 1876, 

 and in 1894 made internal dissensions in the Corean 

 state a reason for proposing to China a joint inter- 

 vention. China declining (as Japan had hoped) to 

 interfere with its vassal state, the Japanese there- 

 upon invaded and occupied Corea, defeated the 

 Chinese at Phong- Yang and in a naval battle on 

 the Vain, and, invading China, forced the Chinese 

 to submit to a humiliating peace (1895). Russian 

 influence is now dominant. See CHINA. 



See Dallet, Histoire de FEuliae de Coree (1874); 

 Oppert, A Forbidden Latul (1880) ; J. Ross, History of 

 Corea (1880) ; two works by Griffis ( New York, 1882 and 

 1885); and other works on Corea by Lowell (1886), 

 Carles (1888), Gilmore (1893), Captain Cavendish (1894), 

 A. H. Savage Landor (1895). and Mrs Bishop (1898), 

 besides Curzon's Problems of the Far East ( 1895). There 

 are Coreau Dictionaries by Underwood ( Shanghai, 1890 ) 

 and Scott ( Shanghai, 1891 ). And see JAPAN. 



Core'gomiS, a genus of fishes in the salmon 

 family, including numerous species found in fresh 

 water and sometimes in the sea, especially near the 

 coast. The body is compressed, the scales are of 

 medium size, and the teetli are small or degenerate. 

 They inhabit Arctic and north temperate regions, 

 ranging from North America to Siberia. They 

 are good for eating. C. Oxyrhynchus in the Baltic 

 and the south-east of the North Sea, C. lavaretusin 

 the Baltic, C. fera in Swiss lakes, C. dupeoides in 

 British lakes ( the ' powan ' of Loch Lomond, or 

 Gwyniad, q. v. ), C. pollan (the 'pollan') in Ire- 

 Land, C. lucidus, &c. (the ' herring-salmon '), and 

 C. sap-id us or albv-s (the much-esteemed 'white 

 fish') from North American lakes, are common 

 representatives of the genus. 



Corelli, ARCANGELO (1653-1713), composer, 

 was born at Fusignano in the Bolognese, and died 

 at Rome. His pieces, especially for the violin, 

 mark an epoch in chamber music, and influenced 

 later composers, as Bach. 



Corelli, MARIE, novelist, a step-daughter of 

 Charles Mackay (q. v.), was born in 1864, and has 

 written A Romance of Two Worlds (1886). IV- 

 detta (1886), Thelma (1887), My Wonderful Wife 

 (1889), Wormwood (1891), The Soul of Lilith 

 (1892), Barabbas (1893), The Sorrow of Satan 

 (1895), The Mighty Atom (1896), The Murder of 

 Delicia (1896), 'Ziska (1897), &c. works that have 

 enjoyed a most astonishing vogue. 



Corentyn, a river of South America, flowing 

 northward to the Atlantic between British ana 

 Dutch Guiana (q.v.), navigable for 150 miles. 



Corfe Castle, a village-borough of Dorset- 

 shire, in the 'Isle' of Purbeck, 4 miles SE. of 

 Wareham. Its famous castle. < hit ing from early 

 Norman times, is the traditional scene of the 

 murder of King Edward the Martyr, by his step- 

 mother Elftida (979); and more than twenty 

 knights, ' most noble and valorous in arms,' were 

 done to death within its walls by King John. In 

 1643 it was gallantly defended by Lady Bankes for 

 six weeks against 600 Roundheads. Taken through 

 treachery two years later, it was dismantled ; and 

 its beautiful ruins, with their 'hanging towers,' 

 cover nearly 3 acres. Pop. of parish, 1777. See 

 histories of Corfe Castle by G. Baukes (1853) and 

 T. Bond (1884). 



