820 BEPOiiT— 1892. 



6. Cadamosto -• ' The Marco Polo of West Africa.' By H. Yule Oldham. 



Alrise da Ca da Mosto, born at Venice in 1432, entered, like Columbus and 

 other Italians, the service of Portugal, and at the instigation of Prince Henry the 

 navigator made two voyages along the west coast of Africa in the years 1455 and 

 1456. In the second of these the Cape Verde Islands were discovered for the first 

 time. The journals of these voyages form one of the eai-liest personal narratives 

 of an explorer, and are of particular value as a connecting link between the periods 

 of Prince Henry and Columbus, the two great figures in the history of geographical 

 discovery in the fifteenth century. 



As the trustworthiness of Cadamosto has been seriously impugned, the object 

 of the paper is not merely to draw attention to the merits, but to vindicate the 

 character, of this important traveller. 



7. North Korea. By C. W. Campbell. 



The subject of this paper is a journey which -was undertaken by Mr. C. W. 

 Campbell, a member of Her Majesty's Consular Service in China, through the 

 northern half of Korea to the Manchurian frontier in the autumn of 1889. 



Starting from Soul, the capital of Korea, on August 31, Mr. Campbell crossed 

 the peninsula by a north-easterly route to Won-san, the treaty port on the east 

 coast. The interesting portion of this traverse was the Keum Kang San, or 

 Diamond Mountains, which had not previously been visited by a European. They 

 are a notably irregular section of the principal Korean range which descends from 

 the Ch'ang-pai Shan (Ever- White Mountains) of Manchuria, are the head-quar- 

 ters of Korean Buddhism, and possess some striking scenery which attracts 

 numbers of native tourists every year in spring and autumn. 



From Won-san the route followed the coast to Ham-heung and Puk-ch'ong, 

 whei-e it broke inland to Kap-san and the Yalu River. At Po-ch'on, a village on 

 a branch of the Yalu, Mr. Campbell procured guides and bearers, and continuing 

 northward through an uninhabited forest, made an attempt to ascend the extinct 

 volcano of Peik-tu San (White-Head Mountain), better known as the 'Long 

 W^hite Mountain,' which is an erroneous translation of the Chinese Ch'ang-pai 

 Shan, or Ever-White Mountain. It was first authentically visited in 1886 by 

 Mr. James and his party, who approached it from the Manchurian side. Besides 

 being the centre of much legend and fable in both ]\Ianchu and Korean history, 

 the TSTiite ^fountain is remarkable physically by reason of an Alpine lake which 

 has formed in the extinct crater at 7,000 or 8,000 feet above sea-level. Mr. 

 Campbell just failed to reach this lake in consequence of heavy falls of snow and 

 the illness of his principal guide. The return journey to Soul was varied by re- 

 crossing the peninsula to P'ong-yang. Altogether the ground covered was 1,300 

 miles, a good deal of which was unknown to geography. 



Korea is a hilly country, with poor roads, and worse government. The soil 

 is prolific, but the system of agriculture piirsued is lazy and primitive. There are 

 many indications of mineral wealth, alluvial gold being particularly widespread ; 

 however, the Government is extremely averse to the e.xploitation of mines by 

 foreigners, and little or nothing has been done under native auspices. The Korean 

 race is physically superior to the Japanese, and not inferior to the Chinese, The 

 national disposition is bright, good-humoured, and sans faqon, but improvidence 

 and laziness are prominent negative qualities. Fortunately for Western travellers, 

 the Koreans are not so pronouncedly 'anti-foreign' as their neighbours the 

 Chinese. 



[The paper has been published in the ' Proceedings of the R.G.S.'] 



8. On a New Project for Drywg-up the Zuyder Zee. 

 By Professor P. H. Schoute. 



[An'account of this project will be published in the ' Proceedings of the R.G.S.'] 



