The invitation to visit this interesting and important city was most prompt and cordial. It came within a few days of our arrival in Seoul. In spite, therefore, of the fact that I was suffering from a somewhat severe attack of influenza, brought on in the quite ordinary way of breathing in the dust of the streets of the capital city, we started for Pyeng-yang, accompanied by Mr. Zumoto, by the early morning train of April 5th. To make the journey more surely comfortable, and to emphasize the relation of the travellers to the Resident-General, the party was escorted about half-way by one railroad official, who, having committed us to another that had come on from Pyeng-yang for the purpose, himself returned to his duties at Seoul. The night before had been rainy—a somewhat unusual thing in such abundance at this time of year; but by noon the sky and air had cleared, and the strong sunlight brought out the colors of the landscape in a way characteristic of the usual climate of Korea in the early Spring. The railway from Seoul to Wiju is being very largely built over again; so that part of the time our train was running over the permanent way and part of the time over the military road which was quite too hastily constructed to be left after the war in a satisfactory state. This process of reconstruction consists in straightening curves, adjusting grades, erecting stone sustaining-walls and heavy, steel bridges; as well as in making the old bed, where it is followed, more solid and better ballasted. The part of Korea through which we were now passing was obviously more fertile and better cultivated than the part lying between Fusan and Seoul. There were even some portions of the main highway which resembled a passable jinrikisha road in Japan, instead of the wretched and well-nigh impassable footpaths which are often the only thoroughfares further south. In places, also, the peasants seemed to have overcome their fears, both of the laws punishing sacrilege and also of the avenging spirits of the dead; for the burial mounds had been replaced by terraces which enabled the fields to be cultivated nearly or quite to the tops of the hills.