The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-03-30
COREA'S WHITE HILL.
Wonderful Scenery in That Far ORR
entail Country.
THE BRIGHT EYE or THE SEA.
A Mountain of Perennial whiteness-Tei-
Tei-Ki, the Great Lake-Curious super
stition About it-It IL Sacred spot
The Forests Of South Manchuria.

Corea In OctoDer, ana although he made
every endeavor TO reach his goal, the snow
was so deep, the passes so overhung with
accumulations of snow, and his guide SO
terrified, that he was compelled to turn
back when within a mile or two of the
summit. Nevertheless, he succeeded i'm
making observations of considerable in
terest.
"Peik-tu San, OF Lao-pai Shan (Old
White Mountain) as il is at present called
by the Chinese of Manchuria, is the most
remarkable mountain, naturally and his
torically, in this part OF Asia. The peren-
nial whiteness OF its crest, now known to
be caused by pumice when not by snow,
made the peoples that beheld il from the
plains OF Manchuria give il names whose
meanings have survived in the Chinese
Ch'angp pai Shan, or Ever White Mount
ain.
"The designation, obviously assigned
to the White Mountain alone, has been
extended TO the whole range without APP
parent reason, for no other peak OF it, SO
ar as is known, can pretend to perpetual
whiteness, whether of pumice or snow.
some 100 miles southeast of Peik-tu San
there is Chang -peik San (Ever White
Mountain) which must approach, il il
does not exceed, the White Mountain in
height, but the Coreans do not credit it
With snowy covering for more than
nine months OF the year, and European
traveller who has seen it informs me that
it Is wooded to the summit, quite unlike
Peik-tu San, which is bare of forest for the
ast 1, 900 feet of its height.
"The great point of interest in the
mountain, apart from it's whiteness, is the
ake-twelve miles in circuit according to
Mr. JaDnea and his partv tho nnIu En-.
opeans who have seen it--which lies In
he broad top of the mountains at a
leight OF z, 500 feet above sea-level, and is
opposed to be the source of the three
ivers, Yalu, Tumen and Sungari. The
lei Tei-Ki, Great Lake, as the Coreans
;all 1t, is the nucleus of mass OF legend
md fable. 1t is a sacred spot, the abode
)f beings supernatural, and not to be pro-
aned by mortal eye with impunity.
Cautiously enough, neither Chinese nor
Coreans have the faintest notion of the
real character of Peik-tu San. The Chinese
ay that the lake is an 'eye of the sea-
and the Coreans tell you that the rock of
Ehich the mountain is composed floats in
water, for Jumps of pumice were common
n the Yalu at Hyei-san." Mr.. Campbell's
crude geological explanations, that this
,ho-san ancestral mountain) of Corea
vas burnt-out volcano whose crater had
been filled with water by springs, were
listened to with polite wonder, and
treated with much less credulity than they
deserved.
He pointed to the black dust, to the
rlinkers and to the rocks lining the
banks OF the Yalu for miles, many of
which looked as il they had been freshly
elected from some subterranean furnaces,
but to no purpose. IL the occurrences
1e spoke of had taken place, they must
nave been handed down by tradition; and
il was useless to cite lapse OF time
Coreans are ignorant Of geological periods
to people whose history extends as far
back as 1900 years ago. According to
Mr.. Campbell's observation, most of the
forest between Po-ch'on and Peik-tu San
srows on volcanic matter, which was,
without doubt, elected from Peik-tu
san during successive eruptions.
The general inferiority of the timber
hereabouts to that which he saw else
vhere in Corea led him to examine the
oil wherever an uprooted tree or freshly
lug deer-pit furnished the opportunity.
Beyond thin coating Of leaf mould on
he surface there was seldom anything
,lse but pumice, broken to the size OF
yery coarse sand. According to the hunt
srs, this was the subsoil everywhere in the
forest, and to my knowledge it extends
for forty miles at least to the south from
Peik-tu San.
Nearing the mountain, we get the
clearest evidence OF the character
and regency, geologically speaking, of
the eruptions which spread this vast
quantity OF volcanic material over such a
wide area. Ten miles due south of the
White Mountain the Yalu, now eight or
ten yards broad and very shallow, flows
between banks like railway cutting,
sheer, clean nd absolutely devoid of veg
citation, for denudation was too rapid to
permit the slightest growth"
The sections thus exposed were often
over 100 feet in depth, and at one OF the
deepest portions Mr.. Campbell counted
thirteen layers of black volcanic dust, all
varying in thickness, and each separated
from the layer above by thin layer of
light-colored mould. SO fine was this
dust that the least breath OF wind caught
it and scattered it freely over the adioin-
ing snow, 10 which it gave grimy, sooty
appearance.
The forests of South Manchuria, though
uninhabited now, were, we learn from
Chinese records, the home of many races
in ages past. The comparatively recent
kingdom of Ko-ku-rye, which arose in
the first century b. c., is said to have oc-
cupied the Ch'ang-psi Shan and the head
waters OF the Yalu River. Anyone who
has travelled through the forests might be
inclined 10 doubt such records, for, ex-
cepting hunters lodges, one never notices
vestige OF human occupation. But IL
must be remembered, on the other hand,
that Che word kuk (Chinese kuo), coun-
try or kingdom was applied in the early
history OF Corea and Manchuria To very
limited communities, often TO mere viii
lages.-Nature.