Complete Works of A.P. Chekhov, Vol. 1

"They want to sell us butchered geese," someone explains.

We turn to the right. Along our entire route, signs have been placed indicating the fairway. The captain does not leave the bridge, and the engineer does not leave the engine room; the Baikal begins to move slower and slower, proceeding almost by touch. Great caution is necessary, as here it is not difficult to run aground. The steamer draws 12 1/2 feet, while in places it has to pass through 14 feet, and there was even a moment when we felt it scrape its keel along the sand. This shallow fairway, along with the peculiar sight presented by the Tartar and Sakhalin coasts together, served as the main reason why Sakhalin was long considered a peninsula in Europe. In June 1787, the famous French navigator, Count La Pérouse, landed on the western shore of Sakhalin, north of 48°, and spoke with the natives there. Judging by the description he left behind, he found on the shore not only the Ainu who lived there, but also Gilyaks who had arrived to trade with them—experienced men well acquainted with both Sakhalin and the Tartar coast. Drawing on the sand, they explained to him that the land they lived on was an island and that this island was separated from the mainland and Ezo Japan by straits original: "*). Then, sailing further north along the western coast, he counted on finding an outlet from the North Japanese Sea a historical term for the Sea of Japan into the Sea of Okhotsk, thereby significantly shortening his route to Kamchatka; but the further north he moved, the shallower the strait became. The depth decreased by one fathom every mile. He sailed north as far as the dimensions of his ship allowed, and, having reached a depth of 9 fathoms, he stopped. The gradual and uniform rise of the bottom and the fact that the current in the strait was almost imperceptible led him to the conviction that he was not in a strait,

*) La Pérouse writes that they called their island Choko, but it is likely that the Gilyaks applied this name to something else, and he misunderstood them. On the map of our [Stepan] Krasheninnikov (1752), a river called Chukha is shown on the western coast of Sakhalin. Might this Chukha have something in common with Choko? Incidentally, La Pérouse writes that while drawing the island and calling it Choko, the Gilyak also drew a small river. Choko translates as "we".