506 
PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 
J ust then, fortunately, a rough-headed fellow came by leading a raw- 
boned old cow, and, learning of our difficulty, he offered to take all our 
baggage on the one animal to Hainheung (500 It) for 22 yang (3 dols. 
75 cents). Morning came, and this patient-looking animal was piled 
up till you could scarcely see her; but she got under way and steadily 
plodded on nearly 30 miles a day to the surprise of all the party but 
the wild-looking native, who evidently well understood his cow’s 
capabilities. Only on the last day, when there were no beans to be 
found, did her knees tremble ; and we were all much moved by her toil- 
worn expression. But in the evening, when I looked in at the stable 
to see how she was, I found her peacefully dining off cornstalks and 
beans, apparently none the worse for her effort. It was a feat that I 
shall keep in remembrance to the everlasting credit of the Corean cow. 
From ITooch’ an g, which we left 27th April, we came 600 li over 
high tablelands that slope north. There was snow at intervals, and as 
yet very little preparation for spring work. The timber had all dis- 
appeared, and the hills were bare. I have never seen any forest lands, 
such as would be called so in Canada. There are small clumps here 
and there, and in the neighbourhood of HooclT ang we were about a 
day in the woods altogether; but it melted away again, and left nothing 
but a sprinkling of second-growth scrubby trees so common every- 
where. The hills have been wiped bare to feed the kitchen fires. In 
different places I have seen several varieties of oak, ash, maple, beech, 
elm, and the Sopliora Japonica , a most useful tree. 
On 3rd May we stopped in a village some 120 li from Hamheung. 
It was on a plateau some 2,000 feet, I should think, above the sea. 
There were few signs of spring, the snow still lay thick in shaded 
places, and the people seemed in great poverty. We could get nothing 
but a few boiled potatoes with salt to breakfast on. We ate what we 
could, filled our pockets, and started. There was a walk of an hour 
or more, and we found ourselves at a pass overlooking a green slope of 
30 miles, with the Sea of Japan away to the east. In the descent of 
the next two hours we passed out of winter through a couple of months 
of spring into what seemed the opening of summer. The leaves were 
all out, and the grain growing. From hereto Hamheung (1007/), and 
from there to Wonsan (270 77), we found very good roads and a 
beautiful country. I look upon the eastern slope of Corea as by far 
the most prosperous and well cared for. 
This district is also famous for its gold. We passed many of the 
diggings, where we know they have some success by the amount 
exported yearly from Wonsan. 
Since this journey in 1891 I have crossed the peninsula by diffe- 
rent roads nine times, seeing very little that was new. The thresh- 
ing season is, perhaps, the most interesting of all times in which to 
travel, were it not for the failure of bridges. Grain is hound into 
sheaves and carried home on ox-racks or by coolie porters, and there 
stacked up until the harvest season is over, when the threshing-floor 
is prepared before the door. Mud mixed to the proper consistency is 
spread over the softer earth and left to harden, and here the threshing 
takes place. In the case of paddy, where the straw is of great value, 
it is threshed out by being beaten over a log ; the thresher swinging 
the sheaf, held by a loose rope, first over one shoulder and then over 
the other. Other grains are beaten out with a flail. 
