1868 October, “The Russians in Manchuria”, in New Monthly Magazine[1], volume CXLIII, number DLXXIV, page 376:
But the basin of the river Sutchane, which flows into the Gulf of America, is particularly pointed out by its climate and soil as the region best adapted for settlement. It presents the advantages of easy communication between the mouth of the Sutchana, near Port Nakhodka and the Usuri. Drawbacks occur in the want of timber, large oaks being only met with in the environs of Nakhodka, but the timber could only be conveyed some thirty versts up the Sutchane, beyond which the river is no longer navigable. Another inconvenience presents itself in the country being already settled. The ruins of an ancient city are indeed met with on the Sutchane, with very loft walls, now covered with secular trees. But this inconvenience is spoken of slightingly. The inhabitants, who are very numerous, call themselves, it appears, Manedza, that is to say “free people ;” but the Chinese designate them as vagabonds. There remains, we are told, notwithstanding the density of the native population, plenty of spare places for Russian establishments.
1893, A. Keppen, “Coal”, in John Martin Crawford, editor, Mining and Metallurgy, with a Set of Mining Maps (The Industries of Russia), volume IV, St. Petersburg, →OCLC, page 73:
As however the coal mines of the island of Sakhalin are at a great distance from Vladivostok, the chief port for the Russian Pacific fleet, and as coal veins have been discovered along the entire southern portion of the seacoast province from the bay of St. Olga to the very frontier of Corea, not only along the entire coast, but also in the interior, the Russian Government started a detailed exploration of the whole of the so-called South-Ousourisk region in 1886. In some places the coal veins have been worked since the beginning of the sixties. The most favourable and the richest of all these coal veins is situated on the river Souchan at a distance of 45 versts from the junction of this river and the Gulf of America. The coal veins here vary between three and seven feet in thickness and consist partly of caking and coking coal, and partly of a smokeless coal, resembling the Cardiff coal.
1895 March 23, “THE MINERAL WEALTH OF SIBERIA.”, in The Mining Journal, Railway and Commercial Gazette, volume LXV, number 3109, London, page 326, column 3[2]:
Coal is also known to occur on the Island of Poutiatin and on the north-eastern shore of Strelok Bay. Vast desposits of coal have been discovered 40 versts up the River Souchan, which falls into the Gulf of America.
The fishing industry on the sea coast of the Japan Sea, from the Korean boundary up to the Gulf of America, is partly in the hands of the local settlers, but mostly in those of Koreans and Chinese, who dispose of their fish in Vladivostock, Possiet, Novokiefsk, and Slavianka.[…]The fishing section along the coast from the Gulf of America as far as the Gulf of De Castry is thinly inhabited ; the coast is not easily accessible, and, in consequence, the industry has been taken up by outsiders.
