Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 334

296

北蝦夷

Notices of the Island of Tarakai.

JUNE,

Opposite to the mouth of the Sagalien lies the island of Tarakai; its shores have been visited by a few navigators, as La Peyrouse, Brough- ton and Krusenstern, but it is still nearly terra incognita. The island is included in Chinese maps as a portion of the empire, but Langs- dori says that the Japanese officials whom he saw on its southern coasts exercised entire authority over the fishermen living there; this part of the island he says is called Tchoka or Karafto, and Kita Yesso or Northern Yesso by the Japanese, who did not seem to know its size. It is named Sagalien on European maps, but without any just grounds; the appellation Tarakai is probably given to the shores opposite the mouth of the Sagalien by the Fiattas, and from them adopted by the Manchus, who have settled there. This island extends from lats. 49° to 54° 20′ N., about 600 miles, varying in width from 120 miles at Cape Patience to 25 miles north of the Bay of Aniwa; its area probably exceeds 30,000 square iniles, making it about the same as Ireland, and one-fifth more than Ceylon. The sheet of water separating it from the mainland, called the Channel of Tartary, is 200 miles wide at its southern end, and runs up to a nar- row strait about 40 miles wide below the mouth of the river. It is known that the water poured out by the Sagalien all flows northward, but the deposit of silt has not yet formed an isthmus along this narrow strait, and the natives cross in boats. The communication by land may probably be completed at 52° 30′ N., in course of time, and the passage by boats is even now greatly obstructed by sea-weed. The shores on the western side are low, but hills and mountains are seen inland. Plath has collected most of the notices of this island which we insert in the following extract from his Geschichte des östlichen Asiens, Vol. I.. page 21.

"At the mouth of the Sagalien, and along the greater part of the east coast of Manchuria, there is a long island Tarakai, generally but improperly called Sagalien.' We mention it here, although only half of it is subject to China and the Manchus." The captain of the Dutch vessel "Kastrikum" Marten de Vries, who visited the southern part of it in 1643, was the first to bring any knowledge of the island to Europe. The Jesuits in Peking' also gathered some information from the surrounding people. But as their imper-

1. Sagalien angga chada, the "Black-mouth's rocks," is the Manchu name of some rocks at the mouth of the Amur, and very improperly this was turned to Sagalien, i. e. Black, to be the name of the island. (Klaproth, Asia Polygl. p. 301.) Other names of the island are Karafto with the Japanese, Tchoka with La Pevrouse, or Oku Jesso, Great or North Jesso.

2. The other half belongs to Japan; see Golownin, Vol. II, p. 151, and foll. 3. In Witsen Nord en Oost Tartarye, Part II, p. 50 and foll.

4. See Du Halde, T. IV., p. 14, and foll.