236 National Geographic Magazine. 
are exhibited upon Plate I as groups of towns, each group being 
displayed upon the original in a different color, all of which, as 
shades of various intensities, are fairly well reproduced upon the 
photo-hthographs. Each town is denoted by a circle of very ex- 
aggerated dimensions, large enough to allow its name to be writ- 
ten in Chinese characters in the enclosed area. The apparent 
multiplicity of characters upon the present map is due to the fact 
that all names are given in the native On-mun, as well as in the 
Chinese. The employment of the former is unusual and in the 
present case was resorted to at my own instance, in order to ren- 
der the map more generally useful to foreigners. Each town is 
the seat-of government of an officer who is subordinate to a pro- 
vincial governor. The strength of any portion of Korea may 
therefore be reckoned in the native way as so many “cities,” by 
the word “city,” being understood both the seat of government 
and the adjacent lands over which the governor holds sway. The 
walled towns, which are quite uniform in type throughout the 
whole extent of the country, deserve especial mention. They 
are represented on the map as circles with serrated edges, and a 
glance at the provincial sheets will show that they are quite nu- 
merous, each province possessing from six to twenty of them. 
The number is greatest along the coast of the Yellow Sea and to 
the southward, facing Japan. ? 
As secondary fortifications may be mentioned the San-séng, or 
mountain walls, as they are called, built at the least accessible 
points of the interior ranges, generally in ‘proximity to some 
thickly settled district. The more ancient are relics of the 
feudal period, when Korea was governed by petty princes each 
with his castle upon a rock; the more modern, witnesses of the 
Japanese invasion of two hundred years ago, when they were 
either pillaged by the enemy or else held by the people as places 
of refuge. A number of the San-séng are marked upon the 
present map ; those of lesser importance are omitted. 
Not the least curious among Korean institutions is the system 
of communication maintained at the present time. At the yok, 
or post stations, represented on the map by diminutive circles, are 
kept numbers of the small active native horses, well fed and in 
good condition, attended by staffs of native couriers who are 
ready to receive orders from the station-master and spring into 
saddle upon a moment’s notice. The service is well patronized 
and the couriers frequently employed, partly at the instance of 
