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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



were massed with lilies of the valley, 

 which perfumed the air for yards about. 



Two weeks after leaving Potaidon we 

 reached the city of Heizanchin. A high, 

 flat-topped hill rises abruptly out of the 

 level river valley and forms a natural 

 fortress, on the summit of which is the 

 ancient town. For hundreds of years 

 this sentinel city of Korea took an im- 

 portant part in the history of the coun- 

 try and was the scene of many fierce 

 struggles between the Koreans and the 

 Chinese, their neighbors across the river. 



But its work has long been done ; the 

 grim old watch-towers have decayed and 

 the crumbling walls are almost obscured 

 by a luxuriant growth of vines and ivy. 

 Nothing remains of the city iself ex- 

 cept the picturesque gateway and an old 

 shrine, standing on the very verge of the 

 hill overlooking the valley below, where 

 the Japanese have built a new and unin- 

 teresting town on the banks of the Yalu 

 (see page 47). 



The influence which a great river ex- 

 erts, almost to its very source, on the 

 country through which it passes was 

 brought forcefully to my attention in Ko- 

 rea. As soon as we neared the Yalu we 

 began to see evidences of lumbering and 

 of the civilization which a great commer- 

 cial enterprise invariably brings with it, 

 one of the first indications being a party 

 of Koreans carrying ordinary black um- 

 brellas. These people had seen either 

 very few white men or none at all, but 

 were using many foreign articles brought 

 by the Japanese. 



YALU BOATS OPERATED BY MAN POWER 



Lumber rafts were continually passing 

 Heizanchin on their way down the river ; 

 but there were too many rapids in the 

 vicinity to make the journey a safe one 

 for our baggage, and so we continued 



across country about 50 miles, to the vil- 

 lage of Shinkarbarchin. A log raft was 

 secured there, and with our baggage 

 piled aboard we floated some 375 miles, 

 to the mouth of the river on the west 

 coast. 



The scenery on the upper Yalu is 

 beautiful, but rather monotonous. Hills 

 and mountains rise abruptly from the 

 river on either side, leaving in many 

 places hardly room enough for a foot- 

 path along the water's edge. At times 

 the hills slope away far enough to give a 

 few hundred yards of ground for culti- 

 vation, and there Korean and Chinese 

 huts have found a resting place. 



The river for the first 100 miles is ex- 

 ceedingly rapid, and a boat can float 

 down it as much as 50 or 60 miles in a 

 day. As it widens the force of its cur- 

 rent decreases, the hills become lower, 

 and villages appear at intervals. One of 

 the most picturesque sights was the Chi- 

 nese junks, loaded with salt or corn, 

 which were being towed "up the river by 

 the natives. 



The journey is a tedious one, for the 

 boats must be hauled the entire distance 

 against the strong current by man-power, 

 receiving but little assistance from their 

 huge brown sails (see page 36). It takes 

 seven or eight weeks for the journey 

 from the west coast up the river, and 

 even by making the best possible time a 

 junk cannot do more than one round 

 trip and half of another before the winter 

 ice stops navigation. The Yalu is called 

 by the Koreans the "Am-nok" (green 

 duck), from the color of the water in the 

 early spring. 



At Antung, at the mouth of the Yalu, 

 our expedition took the train to Seoul, 

 where the collections were packed for 

 shipment to New York. 



INDEX FOR JANUARY-JUNE, 1919, VOLUME READY 

 Index for Volume XXXV — January-June, 1919 — will he mailed to members upon request 



