stitution. The food appeared very good; certainly
the soup was so, and altogether there could be no complaint on the score
of harsh treatment, although some men were, on sufficient grounds,
placed in solitary confinement. The chief defects are free intercourse
amongst the prisoners, want of cleanliness, the absence of educational
means, and only partial employment of the prisoners, some of whom are
engaged in the book manufactory, whilst the greater proportion lounge
about in idleness. Our guide, the Chief Inspector, expressed great
anxiety for an improved system, and pleaded, as usual, the want of
necessary funds. Although there appeared to be an amount of liberty
inconsistent, as it seemed to us, with prison discipline, all attempts
at mutiny would be easily suppressed if they should arise; for there are
always about ninety soldiers in the barracks, attached to the prison,
and the prisoners are well aware that insubordination would be
immediately quelled and punished. But we have said enough of this rough
and ready mode of dealing with the lighter forms of crime, and must now
ask our readers to accompany us on a somewhat unpleasant though
interesting excursion to one of the establishments where the worst class
of convicts expiate their offences against society--a penal salt mine.

IV.

There are five salt mines in Roumania,[73] two of which are worked by
convicts, and the one we propose to visit is that of Doftana, generally
known as the Telega mine, which is situated at a short distance from
Campina, a station on the railway line, about halfway between Ploiesti
and Sinaia. Before descending into the mine, however, a few particulars
concerning the treatment of the prisoners maybe of interest. These are
men (never women nor young persons) sentenced to penal servitude for a
period of ten years or more, and until the year 1848 they lived, or
rather died a slow death, entirely in the mine. They were compelled to
sleep in their clothes on the floor of rock salt; never saw the light of
day after they had once entered the mine; and whatever might have been
the nominal term of their sentence, disease and their unnatural
surroundings invariably cut short their miserable existence after about
four years' confinement. Now they work in the mine from 8 A.M.
to 4 P.M. in winter, and from 6 A.M. to 6.30
P.M. in summer, and then leaving it, they march to the
penitentiary, about a mile distant. They work in gangs of about six or
s