TRUE VOLCANOES, 345 



American peninsula of Alaska, connect the old and the new 

 continents together by means of the island Attu, near Cop- 

 per Island and Behring's Island, while to the south they close 

 in the waters of Behring's Sea. From Cape Lopatka at the 

 southern extremity of the peninsula of Kamtschatka, we find 

 succeeding each other, in the direction from north to south, 

 first the Archipelago of the Kuriles, bounding on the east 

 the Saghalien or Ochotsk Sea, rendered famous by La Pe- 

 rouse ; next Jesso, probably in former times connected with 

 the island of Krafto* (Saghalin or Tschoka) ; and, lastly, the 

 tri-insular empire of Japan, across the narrow Strait of Sau- 

 gar (Niphon, Sitkok, and Kiu-Siu, according to Siebold's ad- 

 mirable map, between 41 32'and 30 18'). From the vol- 

 cano of Kliutschewsk, the northernmost on the east coast of 

 the peninsula of Kamtschatka, to the most southern Japan- 

 ese volcano island of Tanega-Sima, in the Van Diemen's 

 Channel, explored by Krusenstern, the direction of the igne- 



* The island of Saghalin, Tschoka, or Tarakai, is called by the Jap- 

 anese mariners Krafto (written Karafuto). It lies opposite the mouth 

 of the Amoor (the Black River, Saghalian Ula), and is inhabited by 

 the Ainos, a race mild in disposition, dark in color, and sometimes 

 rather hairy. Admiral Krusenstern was of opinion, as were also pre- 

 viously the companions of La Perouse (1787) and Broughton (1797), 

 that Saghalin was connected with the Asiatic continent by a narrow 

 sandy isthmus (lat. 52 5') ; but, from the important Japanese notices 

 communicated by Franz von Siebold, it appears that, according to a 

 chart drawn up in the year 1808, by Mamia Rinso, the chief of an 

 imperial Japanese commission, Krafto is not a peninsula, but an isl- 

 and surrounded on all sides by the sea (Ritter, Erdkunde von Asien, 

 vol. ii., p. 488). The conclusion of Mamia Rinso has been very re- 

 cently completely verified, as mentioned by Siebold, when the Russian 

 fleet lay at anchor in the year 1855 in the Baie de Castries (lat. 51 

 29'), near Alexandrowsk, and consequently to the south of the con- 

 jectured isthmus, and yet was able to retire into the mouth of the 

 Amoor (lat. 52 24'). In the narrow channel in which the isthmus 

 was formerly supposed to be, there were in some places only five fath- 

 oms water. The island is beginning to acquire some political impor- 

 tance on account of the proximity of the great stream of Amoor or 

 Saghalin. Its name, pronounced Karafto or Krafto, is a contraction 

 of Kara-fu-to, which signifies, according to Siebold, " the island bor- 

 dering on Kara." In the Japano-Chinese language Kara denotes the 

 most northerly part of China (Tartary), undfu, according to the learn- 

 ed writer just mentioned, signifies, " lying close by." Tschoka is a 

 corruption of Tsyokai', and Tarakai originates from a mistake in the 

 name of a single village called Taraika. According to Klaproth {Asia 

 Polyglotta. p. 301), Taraikai, or Tarakai, is the native Aino name of 

 the whole island. Compare Leopold Schrenk's and Captain Bernard 

 Wittingham's remarks, in Petermann's Geogr. Mittheilungen, 1856, s. 

 176 and 184. See also Perry, Expedition to Japan, vol. i., p. 468. 



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