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Show Vr . iii iu m w hi iuj llllflpstfi tK ' w " ""' i1" n U 2?oca of' J&ozrz U TTV OY CHAPMAN ANDREWS, as ,! If sistant curator of the depart-j depart-j ment of mammalogy of the American museum of natural history, who got back recently from a ten months' trip to the orient to obtain specimens for the museum, and who, while in Korea, explored a region never before entered by a white man and discovered three lakes In the north of the country, gave the following description of his expedition: expe-dition: "After finishing my whaling, I spent three weeks at Shimonoseki, Japan,, collectidng fish, and then returned to Korea and went to Seoul to interview the directors of foreign affairs, from whom I got the necessary permission to go into the interior. Then I went away up the coast by ship to Sheshin. "From there I went on a push railway you get in a car and natives push you up on handcars to a military mili-tary station on the Tu Men river, west of Musan. The latter is a walled town 500 years old, with its original public buildings and many ancient houses. It is the last place Inland ever before visited by whites. The Russians went there during dur-ing the war, and now there are Japanese Jap-anese gendarmes there, as in every place in the country. "I spoke a little Japanese, the cook I had got at Seoul spoke English well, and the interpreter I had Bpoke Chi- i nese, Korean and a little English. Besides Be-sides them I had in my party six Korean Kor-ean horsemen and a hunter. "The northern part of Korea is absolutely ab-solutely bare of trees, unless you so ' classify the fir underbrush about a 1 foot high. My cook, who was thirty-nine thirty-nine years old, had never cooked with wood in his life. The only trees you see in the southern part of the country are those that have been left ' about graves. Plenty of Tigers in Korea. "I wanted to get into the unknown region, which was said to be wooded wood-ed and full of game. The last was true. There are leopards in tremendous tremen-dous numbers in many parts of the country, Bnow leopards, and there are tigers In many districts. The former are very shy, but they and the tigers come to the villages when the snow drives them and get children, horses and dogs. "I have a leopard skin which was presented to me which is nine feet long, but I did not shoot one myself. None has ever been killed by a white man in that country. "I spent three weeks hunting two tigers on the mountain and then decided de-cided I could spare no more time. The country is so big, and I would have had to beat over a great tract. It took a friend of mine in the south of the country two months to get two specimens. "From Musan I traveled 40 miles west before I came to the edge of the big forest and the last village, vil-lage, Nojido, a hamlet of eight or ten houses. Then I went directly toward Palk-tu-san, 'the white topped mountain,' which Is 8,000 feet high. I went until the snow stopped me, which was in May. There were no trails. I had to steer by compass. "The forest, I found, was mainly of virgin larch, 50 to 160 feet high, with some birch, with a very thick undergrowth. under-growth. My Koreans were afraid to enter It because there were reports abroad that Chinese robbers were In it. Right near is the Palk-tu-sanis, where the Manchus originated. "The mountain is a single peak, but It is one of a range called the Long White mountains - "Of course, I went Into the big woods primarily to collect, but the fauna was so limited It was of no use, although for a time I was running 80 traps and hunting. The forest was as silent as the grave and very depressing. depress-ing. There were no birds, except redheaded red-headed black woodpeckers as big as pigeons and no animals, despite the luxuriant vegetation. I bad not been in the country long before I heard talk that 'three big rivers' were on the mountains, the descriptions of which convinced me they were lakes. Korea was supposed to be lakeless. "It took an immense amount of persuasion per-suasion upon the part of the Japanese Japan-ese gendarmes to get my horsemen to go into the forest with me, and after we got there they were forever wanting want-ing to leave me. Finally I had to threaten to shoot anybody that tried to steal a horse. The ground was full of springs. One day in ten or twelve hours' work we made only five miles. "We came out of the forest upon one of the lakes suddenly. They are upon the summit of a mountain about 4,000 feet high. I found that the lakes were known by report to the Koreans as Sam Che-ung (Three Bodies of Water), Wa-ter), and 1 did not attempt to rechfris-ten rechfris-ten them. The largest Is about three miles in cricumference, the next Is about a mile around, and the third about two miles. The shores are entirely en-tirely of volcanic ash. There is no outlet or inlet. "I camped three or four days there, built a raft and made soundings. The water in the lakes ranged from six to eighteen feet in depth, and as near as I could figure out the bottoms are of volcanic ash. There are numerous depressions de-pressions in the top of the mountain, and I figure out that the water in the lakes comes from melting snow, rains, and perhaps some Bprings on the bottoms. bot-toms. There seemed a probability that the volcanic ash came from Paik-tu-san, though the latter Is 65 miles distant. The ash along the shores of the lakes Is loose, and you sink Into it up to your shoe tops. The trees thereabouts are only about 30 feet tall. Down the Yalu to Antung. "Even when we left the lakes my Koreans were still in fear of the robbers, rob-bers, but we got out into the Yalu country after an uneventful trip. We soon came to where the Japanese had been cutting lumber, and then I got a raft at the Yalu for my staff and a small boat for myself, and went down the river 375 miles to Antung, near which the battle of the Yalu was fought. There a railroad connects with Mukden. I had been In the forest for-est six weeks. "Most of the people in that northern country had never seen a white man. As my eyes were not brown, they would not believe that I could see. In every village they would hold up things In front of me to prove my eyesight. "In one place I saw a man eleven years old and a boy of forty-seven. You see, In Korea a male Is not a man until he marries. Then he can wear the national hat. The boy of eleven had a wife and wore a hat. The other, who was single, had to part his hair and wear It down bis back." |
