Long after Helena went below, Jean remained on deck. He walked forward to where Boyar stood lookout on the bow. "You have crossed Siberia, Boyar? How long would it require?
"Who can say? Three months? Or three years? It is a long trip, nearly six thousand miles, and the roads are bad, the troikas miserable, the people indifferent or criminal."
(from Sitka, by Louis L'Amour)
Fiction is fiction, of course, and it does not have to be true, and indeed cannot be true, and that is the fun of it. However, sometimes L'Amour stretches the limits of credibility, and this is one of those cases. Even the trips from Independence, Missouri to Oregon in a wagon (less than 2000 miles) would seem like a cakewalk compared to the one described by L'Amour in this book. Six thousand miles in a contrivance similar to a sled or a sleigh or a cart. A troika was a vehicle drawn by three horses abreast.
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