peaks near the central eastern part of the peninsula. They are celebrated even in China, and thousands of pilgrims have sought for merit by dragging their weary limbs all the way to this holy place. Arriving at the foot of the mountains, on the west side the traveller has to dispense with his pony and go on foot or in a rude chair carried by two men. One foreign traveller describes it as a very rough road, over which one has to pass by jumping the crevices in the rocks or walking across on a single stick of wood for a bridge. He says there were "rocks around which one has to wind his way by clinging to their irregularities for fear of falling into the stream below, rocks over which the water roars and falls in beautiful cataracts; rocks covered with the Chinese names of visitors who had passed that way, these carved names forming the only foothold on the slippery surface; rocks which the monks have rendered passable only by drilling holes, driving pegs and laying logs above them; rocks on which are perched little shrines or on which are carved huge bas-reliefs of Buddhas ninety feet high and thirty feet broad at the base; and above all the towering cliffs and peaks of the parent mountain." Several flourishing monasteries are passed on the way up the steep valley, for here, if nowhere else, Buddhism seems to have some show of vitality left. After a long, steep climb the summit of the range is passed, and below this the traveller comes to the U-cham Monastery. The writer already quoted says, "Passing the cemetery with its oddly shaped stones, we were shown the pools said to have been the bathingplace of the dragons in olden times. They are nothing but ordinary pot-holes. ... In the temple itself there are fifty-three idols, seated upon what is supposed to represent the upturned roots of a tree. Below are three hideous dragons. The story goes that when the fifty-three monks from India came to introduce Buddhism into Korea they came here and sat down beside a wall under a nurcum tree. As they sat there, behold, three dragons came out from the well and attacked them. The animals called upon the winds to help them, and a violent gust blew
