COREA. 
513 
attached, which were said to be the property of the Buddhist monas- 
teries situated in the neighbouring mountains, and which were beino* 
cultivated for the benefit of the communities, and apparently under 
the superintendence of some of their members. 
H ill Lands. Hill property is said — I do not know upon what 
authority not to be subject to purchase, being the property either of 
the Crown or of certain families which have secured “ burial rights” 
thereupon, and in any case reserved for purposes of burial. 
. III. Harbours. Upon the harbours of Corea I can give no 
information, having never seen any but those which form the sites of 
the three treaty ports of Wonsan, Pusan, and Chemulpo. 
_ ... 1V ■ Rivers.— Qi\ the subject of the rivers of Corea, their naviga- 
bility, and the different kinds of boats which ply on them, I would 
venture to refer you to the Eev. L. O. Warner, who has made several 
extended trips, covering the north and south branches of the Han, the 
Imchin (which falls into the mouth of the Han), the Tai Tono- (which 
flows past P’yungyang), and some others. 
. U P°, n two points in connection with the rivers of Corea it is 
obvious for anyone to remark — - 
(a) Absence of TVeirs and Lochs. — The complete absence of any 
system of weirs and locks reduces the rivers (above the points where 
they are affected by the tide) to an alternating series of shallows and 
deeps, the former frequently developing into rapids, which can only 
be mounted with great labour, and bv boats of very slight draught 
and which would be fatal to any boats save those of the heaviest and 
clumsiest construction. 
(b) Constant Shifting of the Channel . — The tropical rains of sum- 
mer, combined with the extremely friable nature of the disintegrated 
granite of which the innumerable hills are composed, must continue 
^ 0 the navigation of the rivers (at any rate in the neighbourhood 
ot Soul) a matter of great difficulty. A cursory inspection of the 
(usually dry) watercourses which score the country between the hills 
that surround Soul and the river will convince anyone of the 
enormous quantity of disintegrated granite which is brought down in 
the form of line sand from the crests of the hills by the heavy rains. 
The consequence is that even in the lower reaches of the Han, between 
Soul and Kanghwa, the course of the river is constantly changing 
very heavy rainstorms bringing down tons of silt, which’' fill up old 
channels and create fresh shoals. 
J . Hoads . — The execrable condition of the roads is a common- 
place with all travellers in Corea, and has, I believe, been freely 
quoted, m combination with the unsatisfactory state of the currency as 
one of the most considerable obstacles in the way of the commercial 
development of the country. But here, again, I believe that the 
mischief is largely due to natural circumstances. Corea is an extremely 
hilly country, and travelling in Corea means an unceasing series of 
walks up and down long and gradually widening or narrowing valleys 
alternating with stiff climbs to the tops of the ridges or passes which 
separate one valley from the other. Corea is also a country which for 
a month or six weeks in each year suffers from a tropical rainfall of 
great persistence and violence. Consequently the indentation in the 
earth s surface produced by the traffic becomes, at the points where 
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