Turned over to the police--Visiting the Governor General--An agreeable
officer in a fine house--Paying official visits--German in
pantomime--The passport system--Cold weather--Streets, stores, and
houses at Irkutsk--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