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This is the most favourable period for travelling in Russia . They fly quickly over the snow in their sledges ; the motion is pleasant , and , in my opinion , far more agreeable than that of an English stagecoach . The cold is not excessive , if you are wrapped in furs — a dress which I have already adopted , for there is a great difference between walking the deck and remaining seated motionless for hours , when no exercise prevents the blood from actually freezing in your veins . I have no ambition to lose my life on the post - road between St . Petersburgh and Archangel . I shall depart for the latter town in a fortnight or three weeks ; and my intention is to hire a ship there , which can easily be done by paying the insurance for the owner , and to engage as many sailors as I think necessary among those who are accustomed to the whale - fishing . I do not intend to sail until the month of June ; and when shall I return ? Ah , dear sister , how can I answer this question ? If I succeed , many , many months , perhaps years , will pass before you and I may meet . If I fail , you will see me again soon , or never . Farewell , my dear , excellent Margaret . Heaven shower down blessings on you , and save me , that I may again and again testify my gratitude for all your love and kindness . Your affectionate brother , R . Walton Letter 2 To Mrs . Saville , England . Archangel , 28th March , 17 — . How slowly the time passes here , encompassed as I am by frost and snow ! Yet a second step is taken towards my enterprise . I have hired a vessel and am occupied in collecting my sailors ; those whom I have already engaged appear to be men on whom I can depend and are certainly possessed of dauntless courage . But I have one want which I have never yet been able to satisfy , and the absence of the object of which I now feel as a most severe evil , I have no friend , Margaret : when I am glowing with the enthusiasm of success , there will be none to participate my joy ; if I am assailed by disappointment , no one will endeavour to sustain me in dejection . I shall commit my thoughts to paper , it is true ; but that is a poor medium for the communication of feeling . I desire the company of a man who could sympathise with me , whose eyes would reply to mine . You may deem me romantic , my dear sister , but I bitterly feel the want of a friend . I have no one near me , gentle yet courageous , possessed of a cultivated as well as of a capacious mind , whose tastes are like my own , to approve or amend my plans . How would such a friend repair the faults of your poor brother ! I am too ardent in execution and too impatient of difficulties . But it is a still greater evil to me that I am self - educated : for the first fourteen years of my life I ran wild on a common and read nothing but our Uncle Thomas ’ books of voyages .
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