ABSTRACT
Sakhalin is separated from the mainland by the narrow and shallow Mamiya Strait or Strait of Tartary, which often freezes in winter in its narrower part, and from Hokkaido by the Soya Strait or Strait of La Perouse. Sakhalin was inhabited in the Neolithic Stone Age. Among the indigenous people of Sakhalin are the Ainu and the Nivkh, as well as others. South Sakhalin was administrated by Japan as Karafuto-cho, with the capital Toyohara, today’s Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, and had quite a large number of migrants from Japan and Korea. Karafuto plays a major part in the history of the development of the coordinate system of Sakhalin Island. The northern part of the coastal triangulation covering the continental coast north of De Kastri Bay and northwestern coast of Sakhalin consisting of 125 trig points was carried out in 1909–1913.
