How did Anton Chekhov study conditions on Sakhalin Island?

In early 1890, Anton Chekhov undertook a grueling, one-man sociological expedition to Sakhalin Island, a remote location notorious for its imperial Russian penal settlements.1

To study the conditions of the island, Chekhov traveled thousands of miles across Siberia by carriage and riverboat. Upon his arrival, he lived in Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsky and conducted a census of the islanders to gather detailed information about convict life. He documented his findings in a research thesis titled The Island of Sakhalin (1893–94), a work that eventually earned an honored place in the history of Russian penology.12