--Description of the city--The Angara river--A novel
regulation--A swinging ferry boat--Cossack policeman--An alarm of
fire--"Running with the machine" in Russia--Markets at
Irkutsk--Effects of kissing with a low thermometer

CHAPTER XXXV.

Society in Irkutsk--Social customs--Lingual powers of the
Russians--Effect of speaking two languages to an infant--Intercourse
of the Siberians with Polish exiles--A hospitable people--A
ceremonious dinner--Russian precision--A long speech and a short
translation--The Amoorski Gastinitza--Playing billiards at a
disadvantage--Muscovite superstition--Open house and pleasant
tea-parties--A wealthy gold miner

CHAPTER XXXVI.

The exiles of 1825--The Emperor Paul and his eccentricities--Alexander
I.--The revolution of 1825--Its result--Severity of Nicholas--Hard
labor for life--Conditions of banishment--A pardon after thirty
years--Where the Decembrists live--The Polish question--Both sides of
it--Banishments since 1863--The government policy--Difference between
political and criminal exiles--Colonists--Drafted into the
army--Pension from friends--Attempts to escape--Restrictions find
social comforts--How the prisoners travel--The object of
deportation--Rules for exiling serfs

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Serfdom and exile--Peter I. and Alexander II.--Example of Siberia to
old Russia--Prisoners in the mines--A revolt--The trial of the
insurgents--Sentence and execution--A remarkable escape--Piotrowski's
narrative--Free after four years

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Preparing to leave Irkutsk--Change from wheels to runners--Buying a
suit of fur--Negotiations for a sleigh--A great many
drinks--Peculiarities of Russian merchants--Similarities of Russians
and Chinese--Several kinds of sleighs--A Siberian saint--A farewell
dinner--Packing a sleigh--A companion with heavy baggage--Farewell
courtesies--Several parting drinks--Traveling through a frost
cloud--Effect of fog in a cold night--A monotonous snow scape--Meals
at the stations--A jolly party--An honest population--Diplomacy with
the drivers

CHAPTER XXXIX.

A Siberian beverage--The wine of the country--An unhappy pig--Tea
caravans for Moscow--Intelligence of a horse--Champagne
frappe--Meeting the post--How the mail is carried--A lively shaking
up--Board of survey on a dead horse--Sleeping rooms in peasant
houses--Kansk--A road with no snow--Putting our sleighs on wheels--A
deceived Englishman--Crossing the Yenesei--Krasnoyarsk--Washing
clothe