Note 7 — Chapter III · THE URALS TO TIUMEN.

He had made private notes concerning the exiles, of which it appeared that, during the last ten years, from 9,500 to 10,500 yearly had passed through his hands. Of these there were adults about 9,000; under 15, 1,500; and under 2 years of age, 150. About 3,000, he thought, could read. The professors of various religious beliefs prevailed, he said in decreasing numbers, in the following order: (1) Orthodox Russian, (2) Mohammedan, (3) Jewish, (4) Roman Catholic, (5) Protestant. Drunkenness, he believed, was directly or indirectly the cause of the crimes of half of the whole number sent to Siberia, and these were found to be the worst prisoners and the most troublesome. He looked forward, therefore, with pleasure to the expected and now long-waited-for prison reforms, one of which, it was said, would be the sending no more exiles to the western part of Siberia.