t none of great value. Coats
of deerskin were abundant, and the market seemed freshly supplied with
them. My costume was an object of curiosity to the hucksters and their
customers, especially in the item of boots. The Russian boots are
round-toed and narrow. I wore a pair in the American fashion of the
previous year and quite different from the Muscovite style. There were
frequent touches of elbows and deflections of eyes attracting
attention to my feet.

A large building overlooking the town was designated as the jail, and
said to be rapidly filling for winter. "There are many vagabonds in
this part of the country," said my informant. "In summer they live by
begging and stealing. At the approach of winter they come to the
prisons to be housed and fed during the cold season. They are
generally compelled to work, and this fact causes them to leave as
early as possible in the spring. Had your journey been in midsummer
you would have seen many of these fellows along the road."

While speaking of this subject my friend told me there was then in
prison at Verkne Udinsk a man charged with robbery. When taken he made
desperate resistance, and for a long time afterward was sullen and
obstinate. Recently he confessed some of his crimes. He was a robber
by profession and acknowledged to seventeen murders during the last
three years! Once he killed four persons in a single family, leaving
only a child too young to testify against him. The people he attacked
were generally merchants with money in their possession. Robberies are
not frequent in Siberia, though a traveler hears many stories designed
to alarm the timorous. I was told of a party of three persons attacked
in a lonely place at night. They were carrying gold from the mines to
the smelting works, and though well armed were so set upon that the
three were killed without injury to the robbers.

I was not solicitous about my safety as officers were seldom molested,
and as I traveled with a member of the governor's staff I was pretty
well guarded. Officers rarely carry more than enough money for their
traveling expenses, and they are better skilled than merchants in
handling fire arms and defending themselves. Besides, their
molestation would be more certainly detected and punished than that of
a merchant or chance traveler.

My tarantass had not been materially injured in the journey, but
several screws were loose and there was an air of general debility
about it. Like