Works of A.P. Chekhov, Vol. 10: Sakhalin Island

We turn to the right. All along our path, markers have been placed to indicate the fairway. The captain does not leave the bridge, and the mechanic does not leave the engine room; the Baikal begins to move more and more slowly, proceeding exactly as if by touch. Great caution is necessary, as it is not difficult to run aground here. The steamer draws 12 1/2 feet, but in places it has to pass through 14 feet, and there was even a moment when we heard it crawling with its keel along the sand. It is precisely this shallow fairway and the peculiar picture provided by the Tatar and Sakhalin shores together that 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, above 48°, and spoke there with the natives. Judging by the description he left, he found on the shore not only the Ainu who lived there, but also Gilyaks who had come to trade with them—experienced people well acquainted with both Sakhalin and the Tatar shore. 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 Iesso Japan by straits symbol: *. Then, sailing further north along the western shore, he calculated that he would find an exit from the North Japanese Sea Sea of Japan to the Okhotsk Sea and thereby significantly shorten his journey to Kamchatka; but the further north he moved, the shallower the strait became. The depth decreased by one fathom every mile. He sailed toward

*) La Pérouse writes that they called their island Choko, but it is likely the Gilyaks were referring to something else, and he did not understand them. On the map by our own Krasheninnikov (1752), a Chuha River is shown on the western shore of Sakhalin. Does this Chuha not have something in common with Choko? Incidentally, La Pérouse writes that while drawing the island and calling it Choko, the Gilyak also drew a river. "Choko" translates to the word "us."