was clean, well ventilated, and in perfect order, we expressed ourselves as satisfied with our inspection of the prison, and returned to Mr. Sipiágin's house. The warden seemed to be very much gratified when I said to him frankly and honestly that I had inspected fifteen prisons in Eastern Siberia, that the one under his command was by far the best of them all, and that I did not see how anything more could be done by local and personal effort to make it better. It was not a "model prison," but at least it would serve as a model for the rest of Siberia.
At a late hour Sunday night Mr. Sipiágin, Captain Makófski, the prison surgeon, Mr. Frost, and I went through the prison again to see what was the state of things after the prisoners had retired. The convicts were lying asleep in rows on the plank nári without pillows or bed-clothing, and as we entered their dimly lighted cells many of them started up in surprise and alarm, as if afraid that we were about to drag somebody out to execution; but none of them spoke, and we went through six or seven kámeras in silence. There were paráshas, or excrement-buckets, in all the cells, and the air seemed more contaminated than it had been in the daytime; but even at its worst it was better than in any other prison we had visited. Taken altogether, the Alexandrófski prison seemed to me to be in the highest degree creditable to its warden, Mr. Sipiágin, and not discreditable to the Russian prison administration. It gives me great pleasure to say this, because I did not find much to approve in Siberian prisons generally, and I am glad to have an opportunity to praise where praise is deserved.
Monday morning, after having thanked Mr. Sipiágin and his bright, intelligent wife for their courtesy and hospitality, we bade them good-by and resumed our journey. The road, which lay along the edge of the river, under the high, abrupt hills that bound the Angará on the east, had been overflowed by the backing up of the water due to the formation of the ice gorge, and it was with the greatest diffi-
