Siberia and the exile system . to accommodate 190 men, with an allowanceof eight-tenths of a cubic fathom of air space per capita.^They were all substantially alike, and seemed to me to beabout 75 feet long by 40 feet wide, with a height of 12 feetbetween floors and ceilings. The first kdmera that we ex-amined was perhaps 40 feet square, and contained about150 prisoners. It was fairly well lighted, but its atmo-sphere was polluted to the last degree by over-respiration,and its temperature, raised by the natural heat of the pris- 1 The report of the inspector of exile was originally intended to
Siberia and the exile system . to accommodate 190 men, with an allowanceof eight-tenths of a cubic fathom of air space per capita.^They were all substantially alike, and seemed to me to beabout 75 feet long by 40 feet wide, with a height of 12 feetbetween floors and ceilings. The first kdmera that we ex-amined was perhaps 40 feet square, and contained about150 prisoners. It was fairly well lighted, but its atmo-sphere was polluted to the last degree by over-respiration,and its temperature, raised by the natural heat of the pris- 1 The report of the inspector of exile was originally intended to hold 1400transportation for 1884 says that the prisoners, while the inspector of exileTomsk prison contains ten of these i«2:- transportation reported in 1884 thatarms. The warden told me that there its normal capacity was 1900. It con-were only eight. Accounts also differ tained, at the time of our visit, aboutas to the normal capacity of the prison. Petukhof said that it THE TOMSK FORWAKDING PRISON 313. 1514 SIBEKIA oners bodies, was fifteen or twenty degrees above that ofthe air outside. Two double rows of sleeping-benches ranacross the Jcdnicra, but there evidently was not room enoughon them for half the inmates of the neW, and the remainderwere forced to sleep under them, or on the floor in thegangways between them, without pillows, blankets, or bed-clothing of any kind. The floor had been washed in antici-pation of our visit, but the warden said that in rainy weatherit was always covered with mud and filth brought in fromthe yard by the feet of the prisoners, and that in this mudand filth scores of men had to lie down at night to of the convicts, thinking that we were officers orinspectors from St. Petersburg, violated the first rule ofprison discipline, despite the presence of the warden, bycomplaining to us of the heat, foulness, and oppressivenessof the prison air, and the terrible overcrowding, which madeit difficult to move about the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectsiberiarussiadescrip
