Number in series 26; Year of publication 1932 - Fell and Rock ...

146 THE FELL AND ROCK CLIMBING CLUB JOURNALSo far, perhaps, this merely technical description will notsound tempting. But the accompaniments and the scene muchmore than outweigh these unconventional peculiarities. Thesemountains have a nobility of form, their ridges a daring intheir lines that—from a distance, or near to—will capture anyclimber's imagination. They rise to their 5,000-odd feet, atplaces, almost straight up from sea level. Their lower slopesand valleys are a tangle of brush and forest that in Spring orAutumn (the best seasons, for appalling floods afflict them inJuly and August) blaze with colour. Above the thickets, withstill plenty of height in hand, the bare ridges sweep up with allthe outrageous audacity of granite, articulating with the summitaretes in scores of wildly contorted pinnacles which shift andchange bewilderingly and intriguingly as you advance towardsthem.The long valleys which run into the very centre of the rangeare as alluring. The bed of the valley for a mile together will beone smooth sheet of clean and flawless granite, over which fleetsor ripples or foams an unbelievably clear water—Diamond water,indeed ! You walk up stretch after stretch of this noble highwaybeside the stream, passing enormous boulders cut with Buddhisttexts in magnificent characters, or, in some valleys, withgigantic figures of the Buddha himself. Towards you comeparties of Koreans, very much a people of holiday-makers.Tall, wizard-like men in long, flowing frock coats and peg-toptrousers of fine white nettle-linen. Their feet in pale rubberslippers peaked like boats at the toe, and on their heads thosefantastic black gauze top-knot cages—in shape like a Frenchman'stop hat or a Welshwoman's with the peak cut off. Inside youcan just discern the sacred black nob of twisted locks which thehat, if it can so be called, exists to shelter. If rain threatens,out comes an extra headgear, a tiny oiled-silk lampshade thatconcertinas together like a fan when not wanted, and is balancedon top of the gauze cage with strings to hold it tied beneath thechin. Picture, looking out from under such habiliments, long,lean, sour visages adorned with scanty black beards, and youwill see that your companions on the path do not let down thescene you meet them in.Appearances apart, no one has many good words to say formost of the Korean men. They are idle, disdainful and