During our halt at Tong-ko-kai, one day was spent in climbing the mighty peaks to lofty spots where, at a height of some thousands of feet, native prospectors were driving into the granite facing of the mountain in an effort to strike the main reef. Another day was passed in a hunt across the crests of the ranges after bear and deer. At daybreak, a little after 4 A.M. upon the morning of this excursion, Herr Bauer escorted us to a prospector’s hut in the damp recesses of a distant valley, where our beaters, gun-carriers, and hunter-guides had been ordered to rendezvous for a bear hunt. Alas! the Korean cannot bestir himself! His late rising on this occasion delayed our departure from the hut two hours. The sun had risen when the expedition moved off, a motley retinue of professional hunters and beaters accompanying us to the gorge, wherein lay the bear. Hunters and beaters attached themselves to each of us, and we proceeded across the mountain, pursuing a narrow and broken rack, which cleft the bare summit of the highest ridges. We climbed and scrambled up and down and in and out of many sheltered and well-timbered gorges, until the hunters warned us that we were approaching our stations. The beaters disappeared, making a _détour_ of some _li_, to beat up the many crooked twists and turns which the drive took. Hours passed while we, hot, hungry, and athirst, lay hidden in the rank bush awaiting a sight of the quarry. For the first hour no sound broke the serenity of the valley; presently, however, the cries of the beaters came to us, wafted from below or floating lazily from the surrounding heights. At first only a distant moaning, like the sobbing of a storm among the trees of a forest, broke upon our ears. The strange sounds created much restlessness among the wild wood-pigeons, the cooing doves, and the cheery, chattering magpies. Red-breasted storks rose with disdainful elegance from the shallows of the trickling stream and soared towards other pools. The mists of night rolled away from the valley; the dew disappeared from the matted undergrowth; the sun mounted; the day grew warmer. The blood coursed through our veins as we peered hither and thither, scanning the opposite face of the valley with the keenest vigilance. The beaters were ascending. The harsh cries of their raucous voices broke upon the air. The air vibrated with eerie noises; a spasmodic howling arose from the depths of the valley, where an isolated beater lashed himself into a fever of vociferous discord. Hoarse shouts boomed above us, and echoed against the crags of the gorge. On either side of us, the valley resounded to the labours of the beaters, who, gaining the extreme crests, had now descended, driving everything before them. They approached rapidly, joined by the native hunters, who had now taken up positions upon the rocks which overlooked the place where we were hiding. Our own moment had arrived. Each man fingered his rifle,