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since been removed to Tiumén. The duties of this bureau are of a two-fold nature. In the first place it sorts and classifies all exiles, upon their arrival in Tiumén, and keeps a full and accurate record of them, and in the second it watches and controls, through six subordinate bureaus, their transportation and distribution throughout Siberia. These subordinate bureaus, which are known as expedítsii o sílnikh, are situated in Kazán, Perm, Tobólsk, Tomsk, Krasnoyársk, and Irkútsk. They are aided in their work of supervision and control by three inspectors of exile transportation, each of whom looks after one division of the great exile route. At the time of our journey, Colonel Vinokúrof was inspector of exile transportation for Western Siberia with headquarters at Tiumén, while Colonel Zagárin occupied a similar position in Eastern Siberia with headquarters at Krasnoyársk.

Since the organization of the Prikáz o Silnikh in 1823, a careful and accurate record has been kept of all the exiles that have crossed the Siberian frontier; and from the books of this great central bureau may now be obtained the fullest statistical information with regard to the working of the exile system. The first questions that naturally rise in one's mind in connection with this subject are, "How many persons are banished to Siberia annually, and how many have been sent there in all?" From the records of the Prikáz o Sílnikh it appears that between the years 1823 and 1887 inclusive there were sent to Siberia 772,979 exiles, as follows:

From 1823 to 1832	98,725		Brought forward	593,914
From 1833 to 1842	86,550		In 1878	17,790
From 1843 to 1852	69,764		In 1879	18,255
From 1853 to 1862	101,238		In 1880	17,660
From 1863 to 1872	146,380		In 1881	17,183
From 1873 to 1877	91,257		In 1882	16,945
	————		In 1883	19,314
Total	593,914		In 1884	17,824
			In 1885	18,843
			In 1886	17,477
			In 1887	17,774
				————
Total[1]				772,979

1. The statistics of exile in this chapter are all from official sources, as are also the facts, unless otherwise stated.