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Siberia, entrusting them to the care of political exiles, and
thus got valuable reports; and it profited by the
intelligence and industry of these people in many other ways.
But many, if not most of them, worked in the scientific
field of their own initiative.
Life has been a via dolorosa to these heroes of light,
and often it has had a tragical end. Many of them have
succumbed to privations and to the hard climate, some
have lost their reason, others have in despair committed
suicide. At best they have returned to Europe with their
lives for ever ruined.
A typical example of these martyr scientists was the
geologist A. L. Tschekanovsky. Endowed with uncommon
talents and energy he finished his studies at the university
under circumstances of much hardship and privation, and
afterwards, while earning a scanty living by practical work,
he devoted all his spare time to scientific researches, until,
during the troubles of 1863, he was banished to Siberia as
a political offender. In irons and fetters he had to march
on foot from Kieff to Tobolsk together with common
felons. Fortunately he had in his company a friend of his,
Mr. N. Hartung, who, like himself, was an enthusiastic
naturalist. On their way, to quote an account of his life
which appeared in the journal of one of the Russian
scientific societies, they had to live in the most miserable
circumstances, not seldom suffering from utter want. Those
having any knowledge whatever of the exile system know
what those “most miserable circumstances” mean! Yet,
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