apital and the settlements;
but two, and even three men were necessary to convey carriage and
passenger to his destination, and the amount of bumping and shaking on
the uneven road was quite appalling.

These little carriages, as every one knows, generally convey only a
single person, and are drawn by two men, who run in a tandem, while the
third pushes the _ricksha_ from the back, and is always ready at any
emergency to prevent the vehicle from turning turtle. This mode of
locomotion, however, was not likely to become popular among the Coreans,
who, if carried at all, prefer to be carried either in a sedan-chair, an
easy and comfortable way of going about, or else, should they be in a
hurry and not wish to travel in grand style, on pony or donkey's back.
Europeans, as a rule, like the latter mode of travelling best, as the
Corean sedan-chairs are somewhat too short for the long-legged foreigner,
and a journey of six or seven hours in a huddled-up position is
occasionally apt to give one the cramp, especially as Western bones and
limbs do not in general possess the pliability which characterises those
composing the skeleton of our Eastern brothers.

The scenery along the road cannot be called beautiful, the country one
goes through being barren and desolate, with the exception of a certain
plantation of mulberry trees, a wretched speculation into which the
infantile government of Cho-sen was driven by some foreigners, the object
of which was to enrich Corea by the products of silk-worms, but which, of
course, turned out a complete failure, and cost the Government much money
and no end of worry instead. Here and there a small patch might be seen
cultivated as kitchen garden near a hut, but with that exception the
ground was hardly cultivated at all; this monotony of landscape, however,
was somewhat relieved by the distant hills covered with maples, chestnuts
and firs, now unfortunately for the most part deprived of their leaves
and covered with snow, it being the coldest time of the year in Corea.

The mile-posts on the high roads of Cho-sen are rather quaint, and should
you happen to see one for the first time at night the inevitable result
must be nightmare the moment you fall asleep. They consist of a wooden
post about eight feet in length, on the upper end of which a long ghastly
face is rudely carved out of the wood and painted white and red; the eyes
are black and staring, and the mouth, the chief feature of the m