More valuable to the modern people than the now almost abandoned pearl mussel-beds, are the herring fisheries, which, during the season, attract fleets of junks and thousands of fishermen from the northern coast provinces of China. Opposite, at a distance of about eighty miles as the crow flies, measuring from land’s end to land’s end, is the populous province of Shantung, or “Country east of the mountains.” On the edge of this promontory are the cities of Chifu and Teng Chow, while further to the east is Tientsin, the seaport of Peking. From the most ancient times, Chinese armadas have sailed, and invading armies have embarked for Corea from these ports. Over and over again has the river Tatong been crowded with fleets of junks, fluttering the dragon-banners at their peaks. From the Shantung headlands, also, Chinese pirates have sailed over to the tempting coasts and green islands of Corea, to ravage, burn, and kill. To guard against these invaders, and to notify the arrival of foreigners, signal fires are lighted on the hill-tops, which form a cordon of flame and speed the alarm from coast to capital in a few hours. These pyrographs or fire signals are called “Pong-wa.” At Mok-mie′ san, a mountain south of the capital, the fire-messages of the three southern provinces are received. By day, instead of the pillars of fire, are clouds of smoke, made by heaping wet chopped straw or rice-husks on the blaze. Instantly a dense white column rises in the air, which, to the sentinels from peak to peak, is eloquent of danger. In more peaceful times, Corean timber has been largely exported to Chifu, and tribute-bearing ships have sailed over to Tientsin. The Chinese fishermen usually appear off the coast of this province in the third month, or April, remaining until June, when their white sails, bent homeward, sink from the gaze of the vigilant sentinels on the hills, who watch continually lest the Chinese set foot on shore. This they are forbidden to do on pain of death. In spite of the vigilance of the soldiers, however, a great deal of smuggling is done at night, between the Coreans and Chinese boatmen, at this time, and the French missionaries have repeatedly passed the barriers of this forbidden land by disembarking from Chifu junks off this coast. The island of Merin (Merin-to) has, on several occasions, been trodden by the feet of priests who afterward became martyrs. At one time, in June, 1865, four Frenchmen entered “the lion’s den” from this rendezvous. There is a great bank of sand and many islands off the coast, the most important of the latter being the Sir James Hall group, which was visited, in 1816, by Captains Maxwell and Hall, in the ships Lyra and Alceste. These forest-clad and well-cultivated islands were named after the president of the Edinburgh Geographical Society, the father of the gallant sailor and lively author who drove the first British keel through the unknown waters of the Yellow Sea. Eastward