and the journey through Asiatic Russia usually occupied from four
to five weeks, even though every available means of transport
was placed at the disposal of the Czar's messengers.

Michael Strogoff was a man who feared neither frost nor snow.
He would have preferred traveling during the severe winter season,
in order that he might perform the whole distance by sleighs.
At that period of the year the difficulties which all other means
of locomotion present are greatly diminished, the wide steppes
being leveled by snow, while there are no rivers to cross,
but simply sheets of glass, over which the sleigh glides
rapidly and easily.

Perhaps certain natural phenomena are most to be feared at that time,
such as long-continuing and dense fogs, excessive cold, fearfully heavy
snow-storms, which sometimes envelop whole caravans and cause
their destruction. Hungry wolves also roam over the plain in thousands.
But it would have been better for Michael Strogoff to face these risks;
for during the winter the Tartar invaders would have been stationed
in the towns, any movement of their troops would have been impracticable,
and he could consequently have more easily performed his journey.
But it was not in his power to choose either weather or time.
Whatever the circumstances, he must accept them and set out.

Such were the difficulties which Michael Strogoff boldly confronted
and prepared to encounter.

In the first place, he must not travel as a courier of the Czar
usually would. No one must even suspect what he really was.
Spies swarm in a rebellious country; let him be recognized,