The second day we travelled mostly parallel with the seashore, and got more accustomed to riding our steeds. It was a perfect day with radiant sunshine, and one received an impression of universal content and comfort. The people looked for the most part respectably dressed and housed, and “every prospect pleased.” The villages seemed well supplied with cattle, pigs, fowls, and firewood, and within the houses were goodly array of bowls and brass utensils brilliantly polished. When we stopped at midday the horses were unloaded and given a hot sort of bran mash. The Korean pony is a hardy creature, capable of great labour and wonderfully sure-footed, but he requires three hot meals per day, that is to say, a large quantity of hot water with more or less of boiled beans and rice chaff in it. He appears to be eating all night long except when he is fighting his next-door neighbour. His mapoo or groom brushes him assiduously with a little round brush before loading, though it never has any visible effect on the beast’s coat—a more unkempt-looking animal is not to be found anywhere. The stable and kitchen of Korean inns seem to consist in a single room, one wall having a long row of stoves so that various big pans can be cooking at the same time. The chimney of a house is generally quite detached from the building, for it is connected with flues which underlie the whole house, heating every room (see illustration, p. 10). At meal-times the men each had a little round table, about four inches in diameter, on which were a large brass bowl of rice, another of water, and two or three small earthenware dishes of vegetable, or fish, or other condiments. These little tables are very neat, and the food attractively served. The Koreans required two hours always at midday, for the men lie down and go to sleep after they have eaten. Our way led us up hill and down dale, and in the course of the day we walked down five precipitous hills, on two of which there were large gangs of navvies making the road. They use a peculiar spade with a long handle, partly shod at the spatula-shaped end with iron, to which was attached a rope on each side worked by separate individuals, so that it required three men to wield it. Everywhere the country was being prepared for the crops. The rice fields seemed to occupy the main part of the land under cultivation, and were being ploughed by cattle. None of the ground was pasture land—we have not seen a single sheep since we came to Korea; there were some flocks of goats to be seen from the railway, but no other animals grazing. The cattle are singularly fine, but are only used in agriculture and as beasts of burden; the loads of wood that they carry are so large that hardly more of the beast is to be seen than the legs. The same may be said of the loads carried by men and boys.