knew to Colonel Degrave, the governor of Omsk. Sierosiuski
and his fellow conspirators in the city were at once arrested, and
orders were despatched over the whole country to secure all
accomplices and suspected persons. About a thousand arrests were made,
and as soon as news of the affair reached St. Petersburg, a commission
of inquiry was appointed. The investigations lasted until 1837, when
they were concluded and the sentences confirmed.

[Illustration: FLOGGING WITH STICKS.]

Six principal offenders, including the chief, were each condemned to
seven thousand blows of the _plette_, or stick, while walking the
gauntlet between two files of soldiers. This is equivalent to a death
sentence, as very few men can survive more than four thousand blows.
Only one of the six outlived the day when the punishment was
inflicted, some falling dead before the full number of strokes had
been given. The minor offenders were variously sentenced, according to
the extent of their guilt, flogging with the stick being followed by
penal colonization or military service in distant garrisons.

It is said that the priest Sierosiuski while undergoing his punishment
recited in a clear voice the Latin prayer, "Misere mei, Deus, secundum
magnam misericordium tuam."

On approaching the Irtish we found it bordered by hills which
presented steep banks toward the river. The opposite bank was low and
quite level. It is a peculiarity of most rivers in Russia that the
right banks rise into bluffs, while the opposite shores are low and
flat. The Volga is a fine example of this, all the way from Tver to
Astrachan, and the same feature is observable in most of the Siberian
streams that reach the Arctic Ocean. Various conjectures account for
it, but none are satisfactory to scientific men.

Steamboats have ascended to Omsk, but there is not sufficient traffic
to make regular navigation profitable. We crossed the Irtish two
hundred and seventy versts south of Tobolsk, a city familiar to
American readers from its connection with the "Story of Elizabeth."
The great road formerly passed through Tobolsk, and was changed when a
survey of the country showed that two hundred versts might be saved.
Formerly all exiles to Siberia were first sent to that city, where a
"Commission of Transportation" held constant session. From Tobolsk the
prisoners were told off to the different governments, provinces,
districts, and 'circles,' and assigned to the penalties pres