Many attempts have been made to escape from these mines, but very few were completely successful.  Some prisoners crossed into China after dodging the vigilant Cossacks on the frontier, but they generally perished in the deserts of Mongolia, either by starvation or at the hands of the natives.  I have heard of two who reached the Gulf of Pecheli after many hardships, where they captured a Chinese fishing boat and put to sea.  When almost dead of starvation they were picked up by an English barque and carried to Shanghae, where the foreign merchants supplied them with money to find their way to Paris.

A better route than this was by the Amoor, before it was open to Russian navigation.  Many who escaped this way lost their lives, but others reached the seacoast where they were picked up by whalers or other transient ships.  In 1844 three men started for the Ohotsk sea, traveling by way of the Yablonoi mountains.  They had managed to obtain a rifle, and subsisted upon game they killed, and upon berries, roots, and the bark of trees.  They escaped from the mines about midsummer, and hoped by rapid travel to reach the coast before winter overtook them.

One of the men was killed by falling from a rock during the first month of the journey.  The others buried their dead companion as best they could, marking his grave with a cross, though with no expectation it would again be seen by human eyes.  Traversing the mountains and reaching the tributaries of the Aldan river, they found their hardships commencing.  The country was rough and game scarce, so that the fugitives were exhausted by fatigue and hunger.  They traveled for a time with the wandering Tunguze of this region, and were caught by the early snows of winter when the coast was still two hundred miles away.  They determined to wait until spring before crossing the mountains.  Unluckily while with the Tunguze they were seen by a Russian merchant, who informed the authorities.  Early in the spring they were captured and returned to their place of imprisonment.

The region around the Yablonoi mountains is so desolate that escape in that direction is almost impossible.  By way of the post route to Lake Baikal it is equally difficult, as the road is carefully watched and there are few habitations away from the post villages and stations.  No one can travel by post without a padaroshnia, and this can only be procured at the chief towns and is not issued to an unknown applicant.

I heard a story of a young Pole who attempted, some years ago, to escape from exile.  He was teacher in a private family and passed his evenings in gambling.  At one time he was very successful at cards, and gained in a single week three thousand roubles.  With this capital he arranged a plan of escape.