The rising was an extremely serious one, and the treachery of Ogareff made it still more formidable.

And when his eyes fell upon the letter bearing upon it the authority of the imperial seal--the letter which, no doubt, contained the remedy for so many evils, the safety of all this war-ravaged country--Michael Strogoff felt within himself a fierce desire to dash on across the steppe, to accomplish the distance which separated him from Irkutsk as the crow would fly it, to be an eagle that he might overtop all obstacles, to be a hurricane that he might sweep through the air at a hundred versts an hour, and to be at last face to face with the Grand Duke, and to exclaim: "Your highness, from his Majesty the Czar!" On the next morning at six o'clock, Michael Strogoff started off again.
Thanks to his extreme prudence this part of the journey was signalized by no incident whatever.

At Oubinsk he gave his horse a whole night's rest, for he wished on the next day to accomplish the hundred versts which lie between Oubinsk and Ikoulskoe without halting.

He started therefore at dawn; but unfortunately the Baraba proved more detestable than ever.
In fact, between Oubinsk and Kamakore the very heavy rains of some previous weeks were retained by this shallow depression as in a water-tight bowl.

There was, for a long distance, no break in the succession of swamps, pools, and lakes.