'Hunting and Fishing. The extensive fauna includes splendid striped tigers (Bengal variety) whose magnificent pelts (because of the cold winters) have much longer and thicker fur than their southern brothers. The great size and beautiful markings of the skins make then highly prized by foreigners, who often come from a distance to seek them. The chief range is in the N., among the forest-clad mts. of Ham-Gyong but the animals harass the villages throughout the peninsula, and during the year kill numbers of Koreans. Not long ago they came up to, and over, the walls of Seoul, and in some districts they are still such a pest that they are exterminated when possible. The dread of the beast is so widespread that when the natives are obliged to travel at night, they often associate themselves in bands a yell, beat gongs, and swing lanterns and torches. Tiger-hunters form a class by themselves, and customarily seek the animal in the winter, when the snow lies deep and it can be tracked easily. In the summer, when the people are busy with other things and the underbrush affords shelter, 'stripes' remembers the compliment of the preceding season and returns it with great diligence and singleness of purpose. The hunters are usually so inept that good tiger-skins are harder for the tourist to get than Korean skins are for the tiger. The latter is sometimes trapped and poisoned by baiting a pit with a dog or a pig. The Chinese pay high prices for the tiger's bones, as they consider them a specific for strength and courage! A winged tiger anciently formed one of the symbols on the Korean flag, and typified power and fierceness. The animal occupies as prominent a place in history, language, and minds of the people as the peasants do in the internal economy of the tiger.
Tiger-cats, sleek and handsomely spotted leopards, big black Korean bes, several specias of deer, wild boars, foxes, beavers, otters, sables, badgers, squirrels, and other minor game are common features of this hunters' paradise. The horns, in the velvet, of the large Manchurian deer (Cervus manchuricus) are much valued by the Chinese, who use them for medicine. Prominent among the feathered game are several varieties of silver and copper pheasants (very common), gees, swans, teal, mallard and mandarin ducks, turkey-buzzards, earles, herons, imperial cranes, stocks, harriers, peregrines (employed by the Koreans as hunting-falcons), white and pink ibises, hawks, kestrels, pigeons, doves, snipes, and so on. Among the numerous birds are cuckoos, halcyon and bright blue kingfishers, clanking blue jays, wood-larks, thushes, redstarts, wagtails, orioles, nut-hatches, rooks, many warblers, and the omnipresent Korean crow, a species of magpie (Kasa-sagi). One sees these almost everywhere in the peninsula; they are easily distinguished by their black head, black-and-white breast, and long, nervous tail; the tips of the outstretched wings are white, and in certain lights the back shows a greenish sheen. They are the size of a small crow, bright-eyed, saucy and noisy, and the markings are very pretty when the bird is on the wing. Game is not persecuted as in certain other countries, as for some of the birds there is a close season (May to Sept.) and a special license (obtainable from the authorities for Y7 for the season) is required to hunt them. Big-game hunters should always plan their excursions with the knowledge and advice of the authorities. The hotel manager can always be of assistance in the matter of guides, etc.
The seas which wash the Korean shores abound in fine fish. Upward of 500 whales are captured each year off the E. coast, where they feed on the immense shoals of sardines and herrings. Owing to the unseaworthiness of the picturesque Korean junks, most of the fishing is done by Japanese.
