The Railway System (about 1300 M. of standard broad gauge) is owned and ably managed by the Government General of Chosen, and is being extended rapidly. The equipment is modern, the road-bed and rolling-stock excellent, and trains are run at a safe speed. American practice is in vogue, and American and German locomotives are used. The dining- and Pullman-cars are made at Dairen and in Japan and mounted on imported Pullman trucks. Both figure on the fast express trains between Fusan and Shingishuu, now an important link in the round-the-world route. Fares are charged at the rate of 5 sen per mile, 1st cl.; 3 1/2 sen, 2d cl.; and 2 sen, 3d cl., with a small transit tax extra. On express trains an additional Y2 is charged for distances under 200 M.; Y3 under 500, and Y5 over 500. Children under 10 yrs., 1/2 fare; under 4 yrs., free. The average charge for a single berth (not wide enough for 2 pers.) in a sleeping-car is Y5 for 12 hrs., and Y8 for 20-24 (or from Yusan to Changchun). Stop-overs allowed at certain of the larger cities. Liquors, tobacco, postage-stamps, etc., on sale in the dining-car (meals at fixed price and à la carte). The difference between the 1st and 2d cl. cars is so slight that many foreigners travel 2d. The fast trains operated in connection with those of the Trans-Siberian Rly. usually carry 1st and 2d cl. passengers only. Other trains have only 2d and 3d cl. cars. Luggage allowance 133 lbs., 1st cl.; 80 lbs., 2d.; 40 lbs., 3d. Parcel Check-Rooms (3-6 sen per day per pkg.) at all the big stations (many of which now have Japanese names). Luggage-porter within any station, 3 sen per trip, irrespective of the number or size of the pieces carried. There are no news-agents, but there are news-stands at the stations. Train conductors wear red bands round their arms; train boys on 1st and 2d cl. cars only. In many ways the train service is like that in Japan. Travelers who cannot make ticket-agents understand their wants will find the Information Bureau (English spoken) service (in all the big stations) useful. Railway Hotels are being established at the most important places. The winter schedule of trains is apt to differ from that of summer. The Railway Bureau issues dainty illustrated booklets, time-cards, etc., in English of genuine use to travelers. -- Central Standard Japanese Time is used in Korea, and it is one hour ahead of Manchurian time. -- The fares quoted throughout the Guidebook are approximate only and are apt to change.

The Osaka Shosen Kaisha and the Nippon Yusen Kaisha run clean, comfortable, and speedy ships between Korean, Japanese, and Chinese ports (frequent and trustworthy service) and are referred to in various places in the Guidebook.

45. From Fusan via Sanroushin (Masanpo), Taikyuu, Shuufuurei, Taiden (Kunsan, Mokpo), Seikwan and Eitouho (Jinsen, Chemulpo) to Seoul (Keijou).

274 M. Frequent dai trains in about 9 hrs. Fare, 1st cl. Y13.75; 2d cl., Y9.63; 3d cl., Y5.50. Extra fare on express trains. Dining-cars with à la carte service. The placards on the Seoul cars are usually marked Seidaimon. Those on the down trains are marked Fusan. None of the intervening cities possess strange attractions for foreigners. The mournful little hamlets are devoid of all comfort and charm, and oftentimes they so blend with the prevailing brown of the landscape as to be scarcely distinguishable from it.

For a short distance the rly. skirts the shore of the bay, which here is usually so blue, and so flecked with yellow-sailed junks, as strongly to remind one of the Bay of Naples. Beyond 1 M. Souryou (the original starting-point of the Fusan-Seoul Rly.), a number of pramitive huts of Korean fishermen flank the shore, their thatched roofs sometimes held down by a tangle of growing melon-vines; the local industry is the catching of sardines and the gathering of edible seaweed, both of which may be seen drying in the sun on the beach. The ruinous old castle on the hill at 3 M. Fusanchin (pop. 13,000) was built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi's general, Konishi Yukinaga, in 1592; it has been the scene of many bloody struggles between the invading Japanese and the Koreans. History records that on one occasion 5000 Korean defenders were slaughtered here, and 2000 primitive engines for hurling cartouche shots captured. Formerly the castle was surrounded by deep moats defended by hundreds of caltrops on which it was hoped the Japanese cavalry would impale itself. Long lines of white-clad Koreans plod city-ward down the steep hills which now close at the right -- the slatternly, uncomely women the burden-carriers. The rly. winds in and out between the hills, which are bare and brown in the winter, but green and flecked with cosmos and asters in spring and summer. The few graceful pine trees which look down upon the rice-fields (2 crops a year) recall much fairer scenes in Japan. Many of the hills are metal-impregnated and are marked by odd rocks fused in a black mass.

11 M. Kiho, on the shallow Rakutou River. The trend of the line is N.W. through a poor country lacking in charm. The native villages are scarcely better than those of Hottentots -- pictures of filth, poverty, and sloth. Many of the huts are round and in shape and color like big mushrooms, built of stone and straw, and so poor that 20 yen in cash would buy a town. The dead level of poverty is everywhere apparent. Lines of dirty men and women with a dazed and purposeless air travel between these spots and the adjacent fields, where red cattle help to drag rude ploughs inferior to those used in Pharaoh's time, and aid in methods of irrigation (necessary only for the rice-fields), that suggest Biblical epochs. One occasionally sees men making visible efforts to work clad only in a fillet bound round the head; others waste the precious hours strutting about smoking contemptible little long-stemmed pipes in an effort to fill in their monotonous lives in a monotonous region. The villages are usually attended by a retinue of voluminously clad, bare-breasted women destitute of grace and pulchritude; by squalid children, black goats, runty black pigs of revolting habits, and noisy geese, the latter kept chiefly as guards and for presentation at weddings as emblems of fidelity, -- something the Koreans do not possess. -- We pass the unimportant stations of 19 M. Fukkin, and 25 M. Indou. At

30 M. Sanroushin (Korean Sam-rang-jin), a branch line runs in a S.W. direction to 25 M. Masan, or Masanpo 9Inn: Yoshi-kawa; Y3) a growing town(pop. 14,000) known for its splendid harbor and for the new Japanese city and naval base of Chinhai. In the long diplomatic struggle between Russia and Japan for the possession of Korea, the fine Chinhai Bay was earnestly coveted by both. Trains leave (several daily, in about 1 hr.: 1st cs. fare, Y1.25; 2d cl., 88 sen) for Masanpo from the main line station. -- Beyond Sanroushin the Nak-tong River is seen at the left; the train enters a hilly country, stony, jejune, and sparsely settled. The scrub pines which clothe certain of the slopes are characteristic features of Korean scenery. Tunnels become frequent as the line penetrates the higher ranges of the hills. 38 M. Mitsuyou (pop. 13,000, on a fine plain). The river (good trout-fishing) is crossed and the rly. curves broadly to avoid some of the loftiest hills, which are riven by long, arid, sparsely settled, uncultivated valleys. 46 M. Yusen. 52 M. Seidou. 67 M. Keizan.

77 M. Taikyuu (Inn: Taikyuu-kwan; Tatsujoukan, the latter near the station; both Y3), one of the most flourishing towns in S. Chosen, has 8000 inhabs. and stands on a wide rice-plain surrounded by hills. The Tatsujou Park is about 3/4 M. to the S.W. The track now crosses a region of wide cultivated valleys watered by thin streams and hemmed in by stately mts. Many of the house-roofs flame in autumn with the red peppers which form piquant items in the native cookery. Occasionally one glimpses crude water-pestles used for hulling rice -- contrivances consisting of a heavy log centered on a pivot with a weighty pestle at one end, and a box at the other. When the latter is filled with the water diverted into it, it tips and bears down one end of the log; the pestle then ascends with a solemn, crushing thud on the rice in the tub or hollowed stone serving as a mortar. Like the 'poor folks' of other lands the poverty-pinched Koreans maintain kennels of sturdy but craven, mangy yellow dogs, which race with the train as it runs past their doors. Many black magpies enliven the fields. The rock-strewn hills remind travelers of Mexico, and the filth and lethargy of the Mexican peon is reflected in the domestic economy of the Korean, -- whose mind is usually as sterile as his country, or as shallow as the streams which cross it. 88 M. Shindou, in a broken country where purple asters and field daisies grow. The distant hills look grim and forbidding. Some of the crudely fashioned earthenware used in Korean homes is made hereabout.

The general aspect of the country beyond 94 M. Waikwan is bare and monotonous, and were it not for the majesty which the very baldness of the mts. suggests, and the glorifying effect of the matchless blue sky, it would all be wearisome to the eye and mind. The rly. soon describes a wide curve to the left, enters a tunnel, and on emerging crosses the Nak-tong on a 7-span steel bridge. Other tunnels are features of the region, which is marked by vegetable wax-trees planted by the thrifty Japanese. 99 M. Jakuboku. The pernicious effects of the wholesale deforestation of the mts. is shown hereabout in the deeply gashed slopes and the parched and barren valleys between. Some of the hills are basaltic with huge blocks of basalt that protrude from between the sparse scrub pines. Beyond 105 M. Kin-usan, a wretched and melancholy town, the train threads a tunnel, then runs down a narrow valley watered by several tributaries of the Nak-tong which meander like slim blue threads across the region. In the hamlets which generally back up these streams, potter-making is the chief local industry. 115 M. Kinsen (pop. 4500). Persimmon orchards are now features of the country, which is dotted with crude potteries. Swineherds and shepherds, as primitively clad as Pan himself and almost as suggestive of goats, lead their meager flocks across the dry hills, and add life if not color to the views.

125 M. Shuufuurei (812 ft.), the highest point on the line, marks the watershe of the massive lateral supr which extends westward from the great axial range of the Paik-tu Mts. of the E. coast, and separates the province of N. Kyong-Syang (which we have just left) from N. Chyung-Chyong (which the train now enters). 131 M. Kokan. 140 M. Eidou, the half-way station between Fusan and Seoul. 147 M. Shinsen. 153 M. Iin. The rly. now describes a great horseshoe curve, runs up a steep slope opposite the station, rounds a high hill on a stiff gradient, and offers, in retrospect, some of the most satisfying vistas on the journey. Beyond the tunnel extensive views over a wide expanse of territory open out at the right. 160 M. Yokusen. The up-grade is still stiffish, and from the terraces on which the trains run, one gets glimpses of a picturesque town on the bank of a winding stream far down at the right. Four tunnels are passed through before we reach

170 M. Taiden (Taichun), point of departure for a branch line via 9 nondescript stations to 69 M. Kunsan, a port (in N. Chyolla Province) on the Yellow Sea, near the estuary of the Keum River.

Trains (several daily in about 4 hrs.) leave from the main line station: fare, 1st cl., Y3.45; 2d cl., Y2p42. -- Steamers of the Osaka-Jinsen Line of the Osaka Shosen Kaisha call at Kunsan twice weekly: fare from Osaka, Y27; Kunsan to Chemulpo, Y7.50; to Mokpo, Y7.50. -- The objective point of the rly. is Mokpo (2105 M. to the S. in S. Chyolla) a busy port in a fine agricultural region, near the mouth of the Yong-san River. Bi-weekly ships of the Osaka Shosen Kaisha make it a port of call. To (269 M.) Chemulpo, Y9; to Osaka, Y27.

Northward of Taiden the rly. traverses a region of denuded hills drained by numerous puny rivulets, then crosses the Keum River to 179 M. Shinnanshin. 187 M. Fukou, on the Kinkou River. 193 M. Chouchiin. 202 M. Zengi. The broad wagon-road leading oer the hills goes to the Chiksan Mining Co's property. The pink and white ibises which one notes in the fields beyond feed on a species of large and unusually handsome frog of a vivid green color with black velvety spots, the under side of the legs and body being a rich red. -- 207 M. Shoeseiri. 214 M. Ten-an, starting-point for the near-by On-you Hot Springs. The region roundabout is the favorite haunt of fine copper pheasants, many of which start up and whirr off at a rapid pace before the approach of the train. 221 M. Seikwan) (Song-hoan). Asan Bay and an old battlefield of the China-Japan War lie toward the N.W. The rly soon crosses the An-jou River on a steel bridge 388 ft. long. -- 227 M. Heitaku. 232 M. Seiseiri. 240 M. Usan. 224 M. Beiten. The broad rice-fields backed by distant mts. are bright with color imparted by long-tailed pheasants of beautiful plumage. The region shows its proximity to Seoul and looks prosperous. 248 M. Suigen (Suon), one-time capital of the district, with 13,000 inhabs., contains a number of uninteresting old temples, some ruinous palaces, and ancient astronomical observatory, and an agricultual and Industrial Model Farm, maintained by the Gov't for the advancement af agriculture. The district is pleasing, with many pine and willow trees. The big, sleek red bulls which help the farmers in their tasks carry a framework on their backs, with capacious side pockets into which hay is thrust. Numerous quaint arched stone bridges and tombs, in the form of granite tortoises with shafts rising from their backs, are features in the landscape. Broomcorn, rice, and various grains are the chief crops. -- 225 M. Gumpojou. 259 M. An-you. 263 M. Shikou. At 268 M. Eitouho (Yöng-dong-po) Jct., north-bound travelers who do not wish to continue on to Seoul change cars for Chemulpo (Rte. 47). The line now crosses the broad and deep Han River, over an American steel bridge 2000 ft. long and 53 ft. above the stream. 272 M. Ryuuzan (Yong-san) Jct. is a suburb of Seoul and the administrative center of the Korean Rlys. 274 M. Seoul (Nandaimon Station).