The preface of the Korean geographer, which is written in Chinese upon one of the sheets, is of interest, as it illustrates the object of the work, enumerates the classes of data utilized and alludes to difficulties contended with. I therefore quote it here.
"The geographies of my country are quite numerous, but all maps are influenced to a certain extent by the limit of the paper employed in their construction, and so distances are very incorrectly given. Thus ten or more ri (Korean unit of distance—about 2/5-mile) are sometimes represented as two or three hundred ri; while sometimes two or three hundred ri are represented as two or three. The bearings given are also incorrect. Such a map offers great disadvantages to people who attempt to learn about their country. Therefore I have taken all care in constructing this one, both as to direction and distances of places, as well as to the situations of mountains and rivers. For distances I have made a scale in which one hundred ri are taken as one ja (Korean foot), and ten ri as one poun (Korean inch, ten to the foot). I have laid off distances in all directions from the capital, so that the general shape and position of the eight provinces are correctly represented. The islands, however, are only placed in direction with reference to the provinces to which they belong, without regard to actual distances. Where mountain ranges and rivers are represented as boundaries, they are necessarily repeated upon the sheets of adjoining provinces. In the measurement of distances one ja represents one hundred ri in level places, and from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty ri where the mountains are high."
The assumption that the unit of scale represents an increased distance in mountainous regions is a peculiarity of Chinese as well as of Korean maps. Travelers who employ either are obliged in estimating days' journeys to consider the character of the country ahead before applying the unit of measurement.
An examination of the various conventional features of Plate I and II will afford much information concerning the official subdivision of the country for governmental purposes, and will serve to indicate the facilities of communication that exist in a country where there are no railroads, and where almost every important route extends in a direction normal to that of the flow of the greater number of rivers. The eight provinces of the kingdom are exhibited upon Plate I as groups of towns, each group being displayed upon the original in a different color, all of which, as shades of various intensities, are fairly well reproduced upon the photo-lithographs. Each town is denoted by a circle of very exaggerated dimensions, large enough to allow its name to be written in Chinese characters in the enclosed area. The apparent multiplicity of characters upon the present map is due to the fact that all names are given in the native Ön-mun, as well as in the Chinese. The employment of the former is unusual and in the present case was resorted to at my own instance, in order to render the map more generally useful to foreigners. Each town is the seat of government of an officer who is subordinate to a provincial governor. The strength of any portion of Korea may therefore be reckoned in the native way as so many "cities," by the word "city," being understood both the seat of government and the adjacent lands over which the governor holds sway. The walled towns, which are quite uniform in type throughout the whole extent of the country, deserve especial mention. They are represented on the map as circles with serrated edges, and a glance at the provincial sheets will show that they are quite numerous, each province possessing from six to twenty of them. The number is greatest along the coast of the Yellow Sea and to the southward, facing Japan.
As secondary fortifications may be mentioned the San-söng, or mountain walls, as they are called, built at the least accessible points of the interior ranges, generally in proximity to some thickly settled district. The more ancient are relics of the feudal period, when Korea was governed by petty princes each with his castle upon a rock; the more modern, witnesses of the Japanese invasion of two hundred years ago, when they were either pillaged by the enemy or else held by the people as places of refuge. A number of the San-söng are marked upon the present map; those of lesser importance are omitted.
Not the least curious among Korean institutions is the system of communication maintained at the present time. At the yok, or post stations, represented on the map by diminutive circles, are kept numbers of the small active native horses, well fed and in good condition, attended by staffs of native couriers who are ready to receive orders from the station-master and spring into saddle upon a moment's notice. The service is well patronized and the couriers frequently employed, partly at the instance of the government, who desire to promote the efficiency of the system, and partly owing to the general accumulation of private needs of various kinds. A letter or parcel is thus rapidly transmitted from relay to relay, moving onward by day and night—except in certain mountainous districts of the north, where the fear of the tiger prevents night travel. Supplies of fruit and game for the royal table are forwarded in this manner to the capital from the most distant parts of the kingdom.
The pong-wa, or signal-fire stations, are indicated upon the map by small squares placed at the summit of the mountains. They are especially numerous in the coast districts, where their sites are chosen with great care, in such manner that the fires that are lighted at each station at night-fall may be observed at some advanced point of the interior, whence a single fire may be again flashed on, to form a member of a more extended group. And so the lights proceed, re-collected and re-forwarded until the final combinations are gathered into a final group at the capital, to show that all is well throughout the kingdom.
The faint network of lines extending over the whole country, as shown in the map of the southeastern province, represents the chief public highways, upon the determination of whose length and relative bearing the development of the map is based. In general, roads in Korea are well maintained, and during the greater part of the year are in fair condition. It would be found impossible to take a wheeled vehicle of any kind over them, however; for such use they are not intended, travel in Korea being performed afoot, or with the aid of horse or sedan. During the summer rains the streams rise rapidly; the waters pour down from the mountains, each rivulet becomes a torrent and the bridges are swept away. When the floods subside the local authorities compel the peasants to turn out in force and make the necessary repairs; delays of travel are thus reduced to a minimum.