coast lands. Wonsan, which is one hundred and fifty miles almost due north of Seoul, is the most important city on this coast. It has a population of perhaps twenty thousand, and is the chief center of commerce on the east coast. It is also very important as a mission station.
The western shore is washed, or, more correctly speaking, defiled, by the muddy waters of the Yellow Sea, which pours its furious tides of yellow water upon the shore with such force that the tide rises to the enormous height of twenty-eight feet in Chemulpo harbor and then retires, leaving nothing but mud flats in sight as far as the eye can see up and down the shore. Every outgoing tide leaves great, huge ocean-going junks high and dry upon the mud flats in the harbor. This coast is entirely different from the east in that it has many islands and bays making excellent harbors. In fact, there are so many islands that the traveler on reaching Fusan, the extreme southern port, for the first time and starting up the coast toward Chemulpo, wonders how it will be possible to make a safe voyage through all these islands, many of which are bare rocks rising almost straight out of the water and looking as if they were hungry to devour every passing craft. There are so many of these islands that the ruler of Korea has been appropriately called "King of the Ten Thousand Islands."
The west coast, like that of the east, is well watered by many rivers, which are much longer and larger than those on the east. Beginning at the north, the most important of these are the Yalu, the Tatong, the
