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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SAC-SAR |
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SAKHALIN, or SAGHALIEN , a large elongated island in the North Pacific, lying between 450 57' and 540 24' N., off the coast of the Russian Maritime Province in East
Its orography and geological structure are imperfectly known. Two, or perhaps three, parallel ranges of mountains traverse it from north to south, reaching 2000 to 5000 ft. (Mt. Ichara, 486o ft.) high, with two or more wide depressions, not exceeding 600 ft. above the sea. Crystalline rocks crop out at several capes; Cretaceous lime-stones, containing an abundant and specific fauna of gigantic ammonites, occur at Dui on the west coast, and Tertiary conglomerates, sandstones, marls and clays, folded by subsequent upheavals, in many parts of the island. The clays, which contain layers of good coal and an abundant fossil vegetation, show that during the Miocene period Sakhalin formed part of a continent which comprised north Asia, Alaska and japan, and enjoyed a comparatively warm climate. The Pliocene deposits contain a mollusc fauna more arctic than that which exists at the present time, indicating probably that the connexion between the Pacific and Arctic Oceans was broader than it is now. Only two rivers are worthy of mention. The Tym, 250 M. long and navigable by rafts and light boats for 5o m., flows north and north- east
Owing to the influence of the raw, foggy Sea of Okhotsk, the climate is very cold. At Dui the average yearly temperature is only 33.0 Fahr. (January 3.4; July 61 .o), 35.0 at Kusunai and 37.6 at Aniva (January, 9-50; July, 60.2). At Alexandrovsk near Dui the annual range is from 81 in July to -38 in January, while at Rykovsk in the interior the minimum is -49 Fahr. The rainfall averages 223 in. Thick clouds for the most part shut out the sun; while the cold current from the Sea of Okhotsk, aided by north-east winds, brings immense ice-floes to the east coast in summer. The whole of the island is covered with dense forests, mostly coniferous. The Ayan spruce (Abies ayanensis), the Sakhalin fir (Abies sachalensis) and the Daurian larch are the chief
cedar
berry
cranberry
crowberry
Sakhalin was inhabited in the Neolithic Stone Age. Flint implements, exactly like those of Siberia and Russia, have been found at Dui and Kusunai in great
The Ainus inhabit the south part of the island. There are also 32,000 Russians, of whom over 22,150 are convicts. A little coal is mined
History.Sakhalin, which was under Chinese dominion until the 19th century, became known to Europeans from the travels of Martin Gerritz de Vries in the 17th century, and still better from those of La Perouse (1787) and Krusenstern (1805). Both, however, regarded it as a peninsula, and were unaware of the existence of the Strait of Tartary, which was discovered in 1809 by a Japanese, Mamiya Rinzo. The Russian navigator Nevelskoi in 1849 definitively established the existence and navigability of this strait. The Russians made their first permanent settlement on Sakhalin in 1857; but the southern part of the island was held by the Japanese until 1875, when they ceded it to Russia. By the treaty of Portsmouth (U.S.A.) of 1905 the southern part of the island below 5o N. was re-ceded to Japan, the Russians retaining the other three-fifths of the area. See C. H. Hawes , In the Uttermost East (London, 1903).(P. A. K. ; J. T. BE.) End of Article: SAKHALIN, or SAGHALIEN If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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