British Publication "China Sea Directory," 2nd Edition, Vol. 4 (1884)

The following are excerpts from the 1th edition of the China Sea Directory, Vol. 4, which was published by Hydrographic Office of the British Admiralty in 1884:

The SEA of JAPAN, bounded on the east and south by the Japan islands, and on the west and north-west by the coasts of Korea and Russian Tartary is about 900 miles long, NNE and SSW, and 600 miles East and West, at its broadest part. Surrounded by land on all sides, this sea is only accessible by the following narrow passages:- To the south by the Korea strait, which connects it with the China sea; to the east by La Perouse and Tsugar straits, by which it communicates with the Pacific; and to the north by the gulf of Tartary, through which it communicates with the sea of Okhotsk by the gulf of Amur; this sea is, as far as is known, clear of rocks or dangers with the following exceptions:

- Liancourt Rocks, Matsu Sima(Dagelet island) and Waywoda Rock.

LIANCOURT ROCKS are named after the French ship Liancourt, which discovered them in 1849; they were also called Menalai and Olivutsa rocks by the Russian frigate Pallas in 1854, and Hornet islands by H. M. S. Hornet in 1855. Captain Forsyth, of the latter vessel, gives their position as lat. 37°14′N. long. 131°55′E., and describes them as being two barren rocky islets, covered with guano, which makes them appear white; they are about a mile in extent N. W. by W. and S. E. by E., a quarter of a mile apart, and apparently joined together by a reef. The western islet, elevated about 410 feet above the sea, has a sugar-loaf form; the easternmost is much lower and flat-topped. The water appeared deep close-to, but they are dangerous from their position, being directly in the track of vessels steering up the Sea of Japan for Hakodate.