Page:A modern pioneer in Korea-Henry G. Appenzeller-by William Elliot Griffis.djvu/32

 24 fitly called Kang-wa, or River Blossom, deflects its main flood south and some of the water to the north. Still further south are smaller but no less enriching rivers that water the warmer and more fertile southern half of the peninsula. One famous stream, the Nak Tong, navigable for a hundred miles, drains the great southwestern province facing Japan, the most populous in the realm. In this valley, with its seaport, lay glorious Silla, the medieval state, whence Buddhist missionaries and civilisers crossed to Japan, and to which Chinese fleets were guided by the mariner's compass, before Europe ever heard of such a thing. To Silla's ports came Arabic vessels and carried to the Occident that trembling finger of God that led Columbus across the deep to find America. At Bagdad, the fame of Korea's artistic products was well known and some of the most entertaining of the sea and wonder tales in the Arabian Nights are probably only idealised stories of voyages to Korea.

From north to south, this Nak Tong, flowing through the entire length of the province and navigable for over a hundred miles, drains the most extensive and populous valley in the realm. Chosen would not be the superbly fertile country that it is, without its rivers.

Thus with the seas almost wholly encircling her, rich in mountains, glens, arable fields and fertile terraces, Korea is ever robed not only in tints produced by the constant caresses of the sunlight falling upon the moisture-laden air of countless valleys, but also in colours of spring and autumn