292 SPORT AND TRAVEL PAPERS 



got at any price, and the most necessary part of the outfit, an 

 interpreter, was not to be found, nor a companion either. So 

 that idea had to be given up, to go alone into an unknown 

 country, with people who understood nothing but Korean, was 

 out of the question. But there can be no doubt that with a 

 friend and plenty of time for preparations an expedition up the 

 creeks and among the mud-banks of the estuary of the Han River 

 would be a great success, as it offers the best of sport with ducks 

 and geese and swans, which at this time November came in 

 vast flights from the north on their migration south. Pheasants 

 and quail are plentiful all over the country except near the 

 settlements, where they have greatly decreased of late years. 



On the advice of a missionary and in the hope of sport, I went 

 in a sampan about ten miles up the Han River, which flows down 

 from the capital and beyond, landing at an old fort, Cho-ji, and 

 walked from there to the Mission station of On-su-Tong. The 

 missionaries, who received me most kindly, live in a Korean 

 house close to a village and among beautiful mountain scenery. 

 The hills now were almost bare, the grass yellow, the fir-trees 

 stunted and but a few feet high. These trees being the only 

 source of firewood, the branches are continually cut off, carried 

 down in huge loads on oxen, and stored in stacks close to the 

 homes for winter use. The hovels, on stone foundations, are 

 built of wattle and mud, and thatched, the thatch being tied 

 down by grass ropes ; the wooden or reed-plaited door is made 

 to lift up and windows are rare. The houses are warmed by 

 means of a fire outside, the heat from which passes through a 

 tunnel underneath the stone and mud floor and out at the 

 opposite side through a chimney adjoining the wall. The floor 

 inside is covered with very thick oiled paper, which is kept very 

 clean and looks almost like polished wood. On this and a 

 mattress the people sleep, covered with a rug, and I found it by 

 experience in the Mission house a very warm and comfortable 

 bed. The rooms are very small and low, the openings into 

 them like the doors of a cage. Every house is surrounded by a 

 fence of reed or millet stalks, the enclosure being kept very 

 clean, for here the threshing of beans takes place, and here the 

 rice is laid out to dry. 



All around were rice-fields, now bare of their crop but very 

 muddy ; the rice grain lost during the harvest lay about plenti- 



