The Okhota (russian: Охота, from an
Even word ''окат'' (okat) meaning "river") is a river in
Khabarovsk Krai
Khabarovsk Krai ( rus, Хабаровский край, r=Khabarovsky kray, p=xɐˈbarəfskʲɪj kraj) is a federal subject (a krai) of Russia. It is geographically located in the Russian Far East and is a part of the Far Eastern Federal District ...
which flows south to the
Sea of Okhotsk
The Sea of Okhotsk ( rus, Охо́тское мо́ре, Ohótskoye móre ; ja, オホーツク海, Ohōtsuku-kai) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands ...
near the port town of
Okhotsk.
[Охота (река в Хабаровском крае)]
(''tr. "Okhota (river in the Khabarovsk Territory): Definition of "(literally) Hunting (river in the Khabarovsk Territory)" in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia"'') Great Soviet Encyclopedia, accessed 4 November 2022
The Okhota is long, and its
drainage basin covers .
[ (''tr. "River Okhota (in the upper reaches of the Lev. Okhota)"'')] To the east is the parallel
Kukhtuy River and then the Kukhtuy Range. To the west is the short Urak River and to the north of it, the Yudoma Range. North of its headwaters, on the other side of the
Suntar-Khayata Range, the
Taryn-Yuryakh river runs north to join the
Indigirka River near
Oymyakon.
Course
The Okhota begins in the Suntar-Khayata Range at about above sea level at the junction of the Left Okhota and Right Okhota rivers. These are about long and start from an elevation of . First a mountain stream, the river later flows along with the river Kukhtuy in a wide valley between
Yudoma and
Kukhtuy Ranges to join the Kukhtuy to form the harbor of Okhotsk, a natural harbour of the
Sea of Okhotsk
The Sea of Okhotsk ( rus, Охо́тское мо́ре, Ohótskoye móre ; ja, オホーツク海, Ohōtsuku-kai) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands ...
formed by a sand spit. In 1810 the ice-choked river cut a new mouth through the spit at Novoye Ustye.
The banks of the river are mostly
forested. There is an important
salmon run. The lower reaches of the river are navigable for small craft. The Okhota is frozen from early November to May.
[ Snow cover in the valley can last until late June.
]
History
In the fur hunting trade, since there are no easy portage
Portage or portaging (Canada: ; ) is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is also called a ...
s to the Okhota, the Russians usually approached Okhotsk from the Urak or the Ulya to the west. The only main route that used the Okhota ran from the "corner" of the Yudoma over the Okhotsk Portage to the Okhota about 100 kilometres north of its mouth. There was some pasture along the river but not enough to keep many Yakutsk pack-horses over winter. Larch was cut and floated down the river for shipbuilding. Around 1750 there were 37 peasant families and from 1735 a few Yakut cattlemen.[James R Gibson, ''Feeding the Russian Fur Trade'', 1969]
See also
* List of rivers of Russia
References
Rivers of Khabarovsk Krai
Drainage basins of the Sea of Okhotsk
{{Russia-river-stub