commerce of the place, but as yet large quantities of freight have to lie out on the bund exposed to the weather, except so far as it can be protected by tarpaulins. There is no better indication of the life of this port than the fact that trade is always in advance of the facilities for handling and storing it.
As for Seoul, the changes have been equally great, though its superior size makes it more difficult for us to get a bird'seye view of them, as we can do at Chemulpo or Fusan. The first important innovation was the abrogation of the rule that the gates of the city should be locked every night before nine o'clock and not opened without special orders from the King until morning. The city wall, especially on the south side, has become a nuisance, since it blocks traffic; and it is only a matter of time when the picturesque old battlements, which look down from their half-millennial height upon the impertinence of galvanised iron roofs, will be levelled. Already it has become necessary to plan for the enlargement of the South Gate, which is only eighteen feet wide, and through which flows a very large fraction of the entire trade of the capital. Here, too, the price of real estate has increased tenfold during the past ten years and has doubled during the past year.
In spite of all that has been said about the filth of Seoul, it is a fairly clean, place as Far Eastern cities go. Those who come direct from Peking or other inland cities of China exclaim in admiration over the broad, level and comparatively clean streets of the Korean capital. Seoul has not made notable advance in the line of public buildings. The beautiful and classic, though severe, lines of the Roman Catholic cathedral dominate the town from the architectural standpoint. The French, English and Russian legation buildings are imposing enough, but they are not conspicuous. Almost all the Korean government buildings are still in the pure Korean style. Some little use has been made of brick and corrugated iron, but the effect is not pleasing. The two styles do not harmonise. The
