Cockrane's Journey to the Fr 



mel at almost every psirtj', with hardly 

 any variation; iiiimely, the command- 

 ant, his lady, and sister; (he colonels of 

 jirlillery and infantry, ■with tiieir wives; 

 Captain Koiitigin, a rich merchant, who 

 farms the sale of spirits, and his wife ; 

 the Lead of the Rnssian American 

 Company, witli his wile and twodaugh- 

 trrs ; and a iMr. Hedcnstrom and wife, 

 who had travelled on discovery across 

 the Frozen Sea, in 1809, 10, and 11. 

 Besides these, the parties were enlivened 

 by the company of doctors, secretaries, 

 ahd half a dozen yonn^ civil otTicers, 

 bein;; in liie highest rank of society. 



Fii'teen thunsand inhahitnnts, incinding' 

 three thousand of the military, are said 

 to compose the population. Irkutsk, 

 indeed, scarcely deserves the name of 

 city, except for its puhlic buildings, 

 which arc good; yet, though I confess 

 it is upon the whole a fine tovvn. The 

 Ijouses are, for the greater part, of wood, 

 though many are of liritk, and construct- 

 ed on a superior style of architecture. 



1 visited a military school, like the 

 others, upon the Lancasterian system, 

 with seven hundred hoys. 



I visited the prison, which I found in 

 a state that would have commanded the 

 approhation of the humane and phi- 

 lanthropic Howard. It is spacious and 

 well veniilaled, and the prisoners are 

 allowed plenty of wholesome provisions. 

 They are only chained when employed 

 out of the prison, cither upon public 

 works, or in the removal of any nuisance. 

 In cotmcxion with the prison I may also 

 notice a species of public manufactory, 

 or working bazaar, for every sort of 

 trade: thf; inmates or workmen are in 

 general such as have been exiled for 

 inisdcmeafionrs, and are detained for 

 their own and the public benefit; many 

 of them contrive to earn a considerable 

 fortune, and all are secure of the benefit 

 of lidl employment. The huihiing is of 

 Wood, and belongs to the city, who hire 

 out apartments at fixed prices, retaining 

 also a proportion of the gainings, which 

 are appropriated to charitable purpo.scs: 

 Iheir capital is already very consider- 

 able, and it i.s oneof lliosc public spirited 

 and well digested schemes which is 

 worthy of imitation in every civilized 

 state, where there arc either criminals to 

 panish, or unfortunates to relieve. 

 ' The exchange and public bazaars arc 

 a fine range of buildings, with a superb 

 saloon in the centre, where public balls 

 and masquerades arc held at least ns 

 often as once a fortnight during the long 

 winter*, besides numerous private balls. 



ozen Sea and KamtchalJca. 



619 



Of society there is but little, but that 

 little is good, mostly German. At a 

 puhlir; ball given in honour of the coro- 

 nutioH, I counted seventy ladies, yet this 

 was considered as a very small number 

 for Irkutsk, as they sometimes muster 

 on such occasions from two to thre«s 

 hundred. The truth is, with the ex- 

 ccpfioti of the ladies I have before 

 named, most of the fair sex belong to 

 the merchants, who may with propriety 

 be termed Jew pedlars, for they deny 

 themselves and their wives almost every 

 comfort, save that of a public and os- 

 tentatious dress, from a spirit of oppo- 

 sition snd vindictive feeling towards the 

 military, who also on their side but too 

 generally treat them in the same unge- 

 nerous, if not slighting and contemptuous 

 manner that we do the Jews in England. 

 A Jew in England, and a merchant in 

 Russia, except in the capitals or sea-port 

 cities, stand on the .same level; and I 

 may venture to say, that with very few 

 exceptions, it is not consistent with 

 etiquette, much less with custom, for a 

 person of rank to dine with a merchant, 

 unless he be mayor or farmer-general, 

 or unless on his saint's day, when it cer- 

 tainly is common to honour him with an 

 acceptation. 



The merchants, on the oilier hand, 

 have as strong a feeling against the re- 

 ceiving of the military in private, ^s the 

 latter can have against recognizing them 

 in public. 



HOSPITALS. 



Proceeding day and night in my open 

 canoe, I soon reached Kirenga. The 

 weather was cold, the scenery, though 

 ever changing, was always mountain- 

 ous, numerous islands were scattered 

 about the river, whose stream ran at about 

 one and a half or two knots per hour ; 

 I generally made one hundred to one 

 hundred and twenty miles during each 

 day's progress, and, wherever I .went, 

 fared well from the hospitality of the 

 Russian colonists, as well as from that 

 of my friends at Irkutsk, who had pro- 

 vided me, according to the Russian 

 proverb, with plenty of bread and salt. 

 This simple sounding provision included 

 also some fine partridges, a hare, a 

 large piece of roast beef, and a quantity 

 of meat pies ; not omitting wine and rum. 



A traveller in Russia, whether native 

 or foreigner, on taking leave of his 

 friends previous to his departure, uni- 

 formly finds at his lodgings all the pro- 

 visions requisite for his journey, with 

 another lodging pointed out at some 

 friend's, for as long ns he pleases. 

 Indeed 



