The country is still, comparatively speaking, thinly populated, and in many regions it is difficult, or practically impossible, to procure in sufficient quantity stone of any kind, and especially hard stone fit for road-making.

Besides this, when roads are made, the severity of the climate renders it difficult to keep them in good repair.
When a long journey has to be undertaken through a region in which there are no railways, there are several ways in which it may be effected.
In former days, when time was of still less value than at present, many landed proprietors travelled with their own horses, and carried with them, in one or more capacious, lumbering vehicles, all that was required for the degree of civilisation which they had attained; and their requirements were often considerable.

The grand seigneur, for instance, who spent the greater part of his life amidst the luxury of the court society, naturally took with him all the portable elements of civilisation.

His baggage included, therefore, camp-beds, table-linen, silver plate, a batterie de cuisine, and a French cook.

The pioneers and part of the commissariat force were sent on in advance, so that his Excellency found at each halting-place everything prepared for his arrival.