Korea and her neighbors: A narrative of travel, with an account of the recent vicissitudes and present position of the countryBird, Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy)
History
Korea and her neighbors: A narrative of travel, with an account of the recent vicissitudes and present position of the country
Bird, Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy)
Korea -- Description and travel
The head of Port Lazareff is about 16 miles from Wön-san, and is formed
by the swampy outlets of the river Dun-gan, among the many branches of
which lie inhabited, low-lying islands. There are rude but extensive
salt works at the shallows in which this noble inlet terminates, after
receiving several streams besides the Dun-gan. Port Lazareff has, in
addition, abundant supplies of water from natural springs. The high
hills which surround the bay are grassy to their summits, but there
is very little wood, and the villages are small and far between. Game
is singularly abundant. Pheasants are nearly as plentiful as sparrows
are with us, the wary turkey bustard abounds, there are snipe in the
late summer, and pigeons, plover, and water-hen are common. In spring
and autumn wild fowl innumerable crowd the waters of every stream and
inlet, swans, teal, geese, and ducks darkening the air, which they rend
with their clamor as the sportsman invades their haunts.
A Korean junk does not impress one by its seaworthiness, and it is not
surprising that the junkmen hug the shore and seek shelter whenever
a good sailing breeze comes on. She is built without nails, iron, or
preservative paint, and looks rather like a temporary and fortuitous
aggregation of beams and planks than a deliberate construction. Two
tall, heavy masts fixed by wedges among the timbers at the bottom of
the boat require frequent attention, as they are always swaying and
threatening to come down. The sails are of matting, with a number of
bamboos running transversely, with a cord attached to each, united into
one sheet, by means of which tacking is effected, or rather might be.
Practically, navigation consists in running before a light breeze, and
dropping the mass of mats and bamboos on the confusion below whenever
it freshens, varying the process by an easy pull at the sweeps, one
at the stern and two working on pins in transverse beams amidships,
which project 3 feet on each side. The junk is fitted with a rudder of
enormous size, which from its position acts as a keel board. The price
is from 60 to 80 dollars. This singular craft sails well before the
wind, but under other circumstances is apt to become unmanageable.
Wön-san has telegraphic communication with Seoul, and chiefly through
the enterprise of the N.Y.K., it is connected by most comfortable
steamers with Korean ports and with Wladivostok, Kobe, and Nagasaki,
Hong-Kong, Shanghai, Chefoo, Newchwang, and Tientsin. Steamers of a
Russian line call there at intervals during the summer season. There
are no Western merchants or Western residents except the missionaries
and the Customs staff, and foreign trade is chiefly in the hands of the
Japanese.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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