PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 
514 
the road climbs the hill ridges and slopes, the natural gutter by which 
the rain water descends into the Talleys, scouring en route the surface of 
the roadway till nothing is left but (in many cases) a mass of loose 
stones alternating with jagged and protruding rocks ; while the valleys, 
which are almost invariably occupied by paddy-fields, and are purposely 
kept wet all the year round, t^nd to become swamps. Frequently, 
indeed, in parts protected from the violence of the rains, one comes 
across sections of the road where one might drive a coach and four 
with ease and comfort for a few hundred yards, but at points where 
the road ascends a hill it is apt rapidly to degenerate into something 
resembling the dry bed of a watercourse, while in the bottoms of the 
valleys, where everything is sacrificed to the cultivation of the rice 
crops, it not unfrequently becomes a boggy and sloppy track on a 
narrow causeway, only slightly raised above the swamp of the paddy- 
fields. 
The care of the roads, &c., is supposed to be in the hands of a 
committee of three (known as the So-im or Sam-so-im) for each 
village, or arrondissement of a city, with power to levy highway rates, 
&c. But I am not aware that anything much is done for the repair of 
the roads beyond the occasional "clearing of the gutters and ditches, 
and the piling of their contents on the roadway. But more serious 
measures than this are necessary if the roads are to be really made. 
Dynamite to remove the enormous rocks which protrude from the 
roadway, and a careful system of grading, together with some ade- 
quate measure for dealing with the surface water, are the most crying 
needs. 
Means of Transport . — With regard to means of transport, I have 
nothing to add to what has been so often and so well said about the 
extraordinary capacity and strength of the carrying coolies, the mag- 
nificent oxen, and the diminutive ponies which divide between them 
the carrying trade (by road) in Corea. The clumsy two-wheeled carts 
which one sees in the neighbourhood of Soul are said to travel the 
whole length of the road between Soul and Enitjyen, on the Chinese 
border. But I should doubt it. In any case I do not think they are 
much used away from Soul. I only remember seeing one in the whole 
180 miles which separate Soul from P’yungyang, and I have never 
met one elsewhere except in the neighbourhood of the capital; indeed, 
in most places I imagine that the roads would be impassable even for 
them. On the east coast I have seen a sort of rude sledge-cart, 
without either -wheels or slides (such as a sledge would have), used for 
carrying firewood, &c., on the low level lands between the mountains 
and the sea. It consisted merely of two shafts, of which the two 
front ends were joined by a sort of collar resting on the neck of the 
ox, while the two hinder ends, also joined by a crosspiece, dragged 
along the ground behind. 
Oxen would seem to be the only animals used as beasts of 
draught. 
VI. Bridges — Permanent. — Bridges of squared stone, like those 
which cross the chief streams in Soul and the neighbourhood, are not 
unknown in the country, but are probably confined to the high roads 
leading from Soul to such places as Syon-onen, P’yungyang, &c. 
Those bridges are formed of huge blocks of squared granite, of which 
