CHAPTER XVIII.

TOMSK TO OMSK.

Refitting--The optician--The feather-pillow question--A friend in need--A dilemma--Schwartz's folly--Old Barnaul leaves us--We leave Tomsk--A weary night--A Russian dormitory--Construction of houses--Cross the Tom--And the Ob--Enter the Baraba steppe--Kolivan--The telegraph--The ladies of Baraba--Game--Windmills--A frozen marsh--Kainsk-- Reach Oms--Outbreaks on the Kirghis steppe--Russian aggression--Its effects on different tribes 290