Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/321

 away the pulverised earth. In the valleys the roads lie along the tops of the banks that separate the rice-fields, and so are sure to be kept from being entirely destroyed. Even between important towns the path is sometimes just a foot-wide path along the top of a rice-field bank, and it taxes the imagination to believe that such a wretched thoroughfare is all that connects two important centres. I shall never forget the curious sensation with which I passed over the road between Chemulpo and Seoul for the first time. It made me think of the sheep-paths on the old farm up in Vermont, and if it had not been for the most positive statements of my guide I should have refused to believe that it could lead to the metropolis of a kingdom of over ten million people.

Near the great centres there are a few substantial stone bridges, but for the most part the country is without permanent bridges. There is a brilliant exception to this in the celebrated Mansekyo, or "Ten-thousand Year Bridge," at Hamheung. It is almost half a mile long and is built upon natural forked timbers sunk in the sand. In the crotches of these lie the crosspieces. The floor of the bridge is made of timbers about the size of railroad sleepers, tied together with the tough vine which the Koreans call chik. Like the old-time London Bridge, it usually has many houses built upon it, but when the rainy season comes on these are hastily removed, for more than once a sudden storm among the mountains has swollen the stream so rapidly that the bridge has been partially swept away before the sleepers were aware of their danger. Almost every year sees portions of it swept away, and, as the cost of its repair is a charge upon the government, and the contract nets the carpenters a round sum, it is looked upon as one of the "good things" of the season. It was this bridge that the Russians fired in May of 1904.

The streams are crossed in three ways: by ferry, by ford and by little temporary bridges, which are not expected to survive the rains of the summer season. All streams whose