Page:Siberia and the Exile System Vol 1.djvu/134

112 would be 586 persons. Owing, however, to circumstances beyond the control of the contractors and the local authorities in Tiumén, it becomes necessary, at certain times, to despatch the barges only half loaded, and at other times to crowd them to the very point of suffocation. In 1884, for example, the barge-loads ranged from 334 to 797. The

latter number was probably more than twice as great as could be comfortably accommodated in a vessel of such form and dimensions.

The convict barge which lay at the Tiumén steam-boat-landing on Saturday, June 27th, and which we were permitted to inspect, did not differ much in general appearance from an ordinary ocean steamer, except that it drew less water and had no rigging. The black iron hull was about 220 feet in length by 30 in width, pierced by a horizontal line of small rectangular port-holes which opened into the sleeping-cabins on the lower deck. The upper deck supported two large yellow deck-houses about 75 feet