Page:A modern pioneer in Korea-Henry G. Appenzeller-by William Elliot Griffis.djvu/28

 20 This indicated the fresh new day's hour of promise.

Mother Earth's wrinkled skin, as left in condensing from the fire mist, furnished Korea with the frontiers bordering other lands, besides boundaries for the provinces. The corrugations on "this terrestrial ball," that formed as the planet cooled, are the rocky ridges. In endless lines and chains, the mountains cross and recross the surface of Korea, making an amazing network of valleys, which have little space for plains in a lakeless land. One mighty range furnishes the eastern back-bone of the peninsula, while the lower western hills and slope give the land its fertile fields. From the peak which crowns all Korea, the Ever White Mountain, containing in its crater, the Dragon's Pool, flow the two streams that create Korea's northern frontier. By the rivers and the mountain chains, the old eight provinces were divided one from the other, Nature thus dictating the lines of demarcation, and making convenient divisions. Of late years, five of the large provinces have been partitioned into halves, making thirteen in all. Those facing China are named Tranquil Peace, Yellow Sea, Capital Circuit and Complete Network. Those fronting Japan are named Perfect Mirror, River Moor and Joyful Honour.

Ordained by the Almighty, who set this people between the mountains and the sea, to be a nation, and determined the bounds of their habitation, thus so distinctly marked, the destiny of the Koreans seemed foreshadowed by their situation, while