While her enemies possessed rapid transit from all points, and open communication with their base of supplies both by steamboat and railroad, Russia's soldiers had hundreds of miles to march on foot, over nearly impassable roads, in order to reach the seat of war.
"Due North or Glimpses of Scandinavia and Russia"
Maturin M. Ballou
The camel-drivers were half of them blind, or nearly blind; for their eyes, during the transit across the desert, are perpetually attacked by myriads of flies.
"A Lady's Captivity among Chinese Pirates in the Chinese Seas"
Fanny Loviot
This, he divined, was the newly discovered rapid-transit route to the Fortunate Isles, and his expression hardened to rigid attention as his eye fell on the testimony of "a ship's officer."
"Command"
William McFee