EXPLORING UNKNOWN CORNERS OF THE "HERMIT KINGDOM" 



41 



nothing and saw no birds. A few eld 

 deer tracks still showed near the stream, 

 but the animals had not been there for 

 months. 



WE FIND LAKES FORMED BY AN ERUPTION 

 OF A SACRED MOUNTAIN 



When we broke camp and I told the 

 Koreans that we were to go to the Sam- 

 cheyong, there was an open mutiny, but 

 with considerable difficulty they were per- 

 suaded to go on. 



I spent two sleepless nights about the 

 camp-fire with the rifle on my arm to 

 prevent the horses being stolen, but the 

 third day we marched into a vast burned 

 track thousands of acres in extent. 



A tremendous fire had devastated the 

 forest 10 or 12 years before and left in 

 its wake a cheerless waste of blackened 

 tree skeletons and charred stumps. All 

 day we tramped through this area of 

 desolation, and at night camped on the 

 shores of a beautiful lake 3,700 feet 

 above the level of the sea. We found 

 that there really w r ere three lakes and a 

 long connecting pond between two of 

 them. 



They seemed to have been formed by 

 some violent eruption of the Paik-tu-san 

 many years ago, for the basins and shores 

 were of volcanic ash, and my gun-bearer 

 said that if we dug down about 12 feet 

 charcoal would be found. All were cir- 

 cular, the largest about three miles in cir- 

 cumference, and beyond them rose the 

 beautiful white slopes of the Paik-tu-san, 

 the sacred mountain of the Manchus. 

 By building a log raft to enable us to 

 take soundings, we found the largest lake 

 to be about 8 or 10 feet deep, but during 

 the season of rain or melting snow the 

 water would undoubtedly rise greatly. 

 In the center of the lake was a beautiful 

 little island, heavily wooded, with a long 

 sand-spit projecting toward the shore. 



I was greatly disappointed upon re- 

 turning to Seoul to find that the lakes 

 were known to the Japanese. A military 

 map showed them under the Korean name 

 of Samcheyong, and they were probably 

 located either from some ancient Chinese 

 map or from the statements of Koreans. 

 So far as I have been able to learn, none 

 of the foreigners in Seoul or other parts 

 of the countrv knew of their existence. 



KOREAS SWEET SIXTEEN 



The lot of the average woman ox the Hermit 



Kingdom is not an enviable one. as she is kept 

 in semi-slavery by her master. Plural mar- 

 riages are not recognized by the Koreans, hut 

 concubinage has a definite status in their social 

 life, as it has had throughout the Far East for 

 main- centuries. 



