Sakhalin

SAKHALIN, an island in the North Pacific, 600 m. long, 16 to 105 broad, area 24,560 sq.m., lying between 57' N., and 24' N., separated from the mainland by the narrow, shallow strait of Tartary or Mamiya strait, which often freezes in winter in its narrowest part. By the treaty of Portsmouth (U.S.A.) 1905, the part south of 50° N., became Japanese, and that to the north, Russian. During the Civil War and war of intervention following the 1917 revolution, the Japanese occupied the whole island and did not evacuate the northern part until 1925. This northern territory forms three fifths of the island and is part of the Far Eastern administrative area (q.v.). Structurally also it is linked with the mainland and not with the volcanic Japanese islands; native legends record it as a peninsula separated by a cataclysm. Sakhalin is imperfectly surveyed. Sokolov reports a western range in the Japanese part, dying down at 45' N., and a second system starting from Cape Terpyeniya, in the Japanese part, containing the highest elevations, and reaching 51° N., where it is intersected by the valley of the Tym and passes to the western side, containing the Engiz-pal mass, closely related to Mount Tiara near the eastern sea. Estimates of the maximum heights in the eastern chain vary between 2,000 and ft. The western hills (Mount Kitoisi 2,478 ft.) are less rounded than those on the east. The valleys of the Poronaya and Tym rivers stretch northward from the Gulf of Patience, and there are narrow sandy coastal plains. The lower course of the Tym lies in barren tundra land, and its upper course is impeded by rapids : the southward flowing Poronaya is navigable for about 3o m. There are other short rivers and numerous fresh water lakes, as well as salt lagoons near the coast. Sometimes the bays at the river mouths are temporarily converted into fresh water lakes by barriers thrown up by heavy seas, and later washed away again.

The whole island has a cold, foggy climate, with heavy rainfall in summer, and bitter cold and severe storms in winter. Snow falls from October to May and may remain in places till July, while on the high land it re-commences in August ; drifts may be 7 ft. deep. Drift ice is found along both coasts in the north and appears as late as July. The west coast conditions are somewhat moderated by a branch of the Kuro Siwo coming up the Gulf of Tartary, though cold, dense fogs are as prevalent here as in the east.

Fauna and Flora.

The north of the island, and the higher land is bleak tundra and much of the island is forested, coniferous trees prevailing on the mountains; amongst them is found the Kurilian bamboo. The coniferous passes into mixed deciduous in the river valleys, and there is a dense undergrowth of wild rose, berry-bearing plants and spiraea. The soil is unfavourable to agriculture and the vegetative period is at most ion days, so that, with the exception of a few cereals, potatoes and vegetables grown on a patch of alluvial soil round Klyuch in the more shel tered central part, cultivation does not exist.

Bears, squirrels, pole-cat, ermine, sable, otter, glutton, marten, fox, elk and musk-deer are hunted and trapped. The bird life is varied and includes circumpolar and subtropical types, as well as those characteristic of the east of Asiatic Russia. Vipers, mos quitoes, horse- and sand-flies are pests. Fishing is the most com mon occupation and fish is almost the sole diet of many natives; vast quantities are exported to Japan for manure. Whales are numerous in the southern seas and the beche-de-mer or trepang is caught for export.

Population.

The native tribes include Gilyaks, Oroke and Tungus, with Ainus in the Japanese part ; for a description of the tribes of the Russian part see FAR EASTERN AREA. The Russians first settled on the island in 1857, and from 1875 to 1905 owned the whole of it. They established five penal settlements, to which convicts of the worst type were sent and afterwards liberated in the region, a policy from which much social disorder resulted; the penal settlement was abolished in 1907. The population in the Russian part in 1926 was about 12,000 and included many Japanese and Koreans. Malaria and scurvy are everywhere pre valent.

Industries.

During their occupation of the island up to 1925, the Japanese markedly developed the coal mining industry: this coal, which is of good quality and abundant, was first worked in 1859. In 1894 naphtha, long known to the natives, was in vestigated by the Russians and found to be practically free from benzine and most valuable. The naphtha and coal are being worked by a Japanese concession (1928). Iron and gold also exist and amber is cast up on the eastern shores. The Japanese also developed the timber industry of the district, which is, how ever, at present not prosperous (see FAR EASTERN AREA). There are railways in the Japanese part, but none in the Russian, except short lines linking the Alexandrovsk coal mines with the sea.

Steamers run from Vladivostok and Nikolaevsk-on-Amur to the chief town, Alexandrovsk (q.v.), from the end of April to October. Between October and December and from mid-March to April, there is no communication except by telegraph. Between these dates dog sledges cross the frozen sea from Nikolaevsk to Alexandrovsk. The island was under Chinese dominion till the 19th century. Martin Gerritz de Vries in the 17th century, La Perouse (1787), Krusenstern (18o5) visited it, but thought it a peninsula. A Japanese, Maimiya Rinzo, discovered the Strait of Tartary and the Russian navigator Nevelskoi in 1849 established it as possible for navigation.

See N. B. Arkhipov, The Far Eastern Area (1926) ; P. I. Polevoi, Sakhalin (1914).