Imperial Valley press., 1937-03-07
By Roy Chapman Andre10s
TOLD At THE
EXPLORERS CLUB"

I AM AVERSE to writing about adventures
| for dislike them. They are nuisance. They
interfere with work and disrupt carefully laid
plans Still, even the best prepared explorer can
not always avoid what may be called adven-
lures. 1t is impossible to foresee everything.
suppose that have had many adventures during
twenty-three years of wandering into the
strange corners of the world, but in retrospect
cannot say which single experience was the
most exciting. At the time it was happening, each
one seemed more interesting than any other.
It might be of some interest to tell of an ex-
ploration I made of the wilderness of northern
Korea in 1912 = not that it was particularly ex-
citing but things happened which might easily
have had unpleasant results. 1t was my first pro-
longed land expedition although had worked
along little-known seacoasts for four years, with
short trips into the interior My object was to ex-
plore the forests of the Korean -Manchurian
border lying south of the Paik-tu-san or Long
White Mountain No one knew what that wilder
ness contained, for until the Russo-Japanese War
Korea had remained hermit kingdom.
| went up the east coast on tiny freight
vessel, accompanied only by Japanese inter-
prefer who spoke Korean. AS my knowledge of
Japanese was passable, Our conversation was
conducted In that language From the little VII
lage of Seshin, we went inland to the ancient
walled town of Musan. There / engaged eight
diminutve Korean ponies and four men for the
trip into the border wilderness The Koreans did
not want to go. They never had been there and
were frightened. It would have been impossible
to obtain caravan without the assistance of the
Japanese gendarmes. They ordered the men to
60 The ponies carried Our camp equipment and
food all of us walked.
1t was. only fifty sixty miles to the edge of
the forests There camped for few days, try
ing to get information, but it was useless. None
of the natives had been more than few miles
into the wilderness. My Koreans were sad-look-
ing men when started northward. Every few
miles they stopped to build tiny shrines of birch
bark leave little offerings of food and pray to
their own particular gods for protection from the
unknown terrors which awaited them / took
compassr srdirections laying course straight for
the Long White Mountain.
The first days march was fairly easy up
broad valley through thin larch forest. The
second not so good. BY the middle of the
third afternoon we fairly in the wilderness
and making slow progress. The forest was dense,
the ground Uttered with oss-grown logs and
spongy from underground water. At the end of
the fourth march. camped two days, for the
men were very tired and much depressed. /
thought a rest and fresh meat If l could find
game, would revive their spirits Luck was with
meand killed bear. That bear haunts me yet,
for did not give the poor brute a chance 1t
was almost murder. He came ambling along
while was resting on fallen tree. Totally un-
conscious of my presence, he walked to within
thirty feet of me The bullet caught him squarely
in the heart. My one consolation is that he never
knew what had happened.
The bear meat did much to improve the morale
of my men Bears paws a great delicacy and
the Koreans feasted like children, forgetting
for time that they were far from home and
mother.