CHAPTER XVII.

_FROM TOMSK TO KRASNOIARSK._

Book-distribution in Western Siberia.--Departure from Tomsk.--Postbells.--How to sit in posting.--Sleeping.--Boundary of Western Siberia.--Wild and domesticated animals.--Birds.--Scenery.--Roadside villages.--Peasants’ houses.--Hammering up “the Prodigal Son.”--Siberian towns.--Houses of upper classes.--Misadventures.--A hospitable merchant.--Frontier of Eastern Siberia 183