Roumania Past and Present | Page 4

MAPS.
[Drawn and lithographed, with aid of Author's notes, by E. WELLER.]
GEOGRAPHICAL MAP OF ROUMANIA To face p. 3
HISTORICAL MAP OF ROUMANIA After Kiepert, &c. 115

Errata.
Page 45, note, for p. 202 read initial letter, p. 200.
" 64, note 1, " 7209 " 7029.
" 162, line 19, " west " east.
" 165, " 22, " Bajazet II. " Bajazet I.


PART I.
ROUMANIA, TO-DAY.
We love The king who loves the law, respects his bounds, And reigns
content within them; him we serve Truly and with delight who leaves

us free.
COWPER.
There virtue reigns as queen in royal throne, And giveth laws alone.
The which the base affections do obey, And yield their services unto
her will.
SPENSER.

[Illustration: Physical Map of ROUMANIA]
CHAPTER I.
GEOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE.
Limits, dimensions, and population of Roumania--Comparison with
England--Configuration of the surface--Altitudes of
towns--Mountains--Appearance of the country--The region of the
plains--Plants and agricultural condition--The peasantry--Female
navvies--Costumes--Wells--Subterranean dwellings--Marsh
fever--Travelling, past and present--Zone of the hills--Plants, flowers,
fruits, and cereals--Cheap fruits--Improved dwellings--Wages of
labourers--Petroleum wells--Rock-salt--Mines--The
Carpathians--Character of the scenery--Alpine trees and
plants--Sinaïa--The King's summer residence--The
monastery--Conveniences for visitors, baths, &c.--Occupations of
visitors--Beautiful scenery--The new palace--The King and
Queen--Geology of Roumania--Scanty details--The chief deposits and
their localities--Minerals--Salt--Petroleum--Lignite--Ozokerit--
Hæmatite--Undeveloped mineral wealth.
I.
The kingdom of Roumania is situated between 22° 29' and 29° 42' east
of Greenwich, and between 43° 37' and 48° 13' north of the equator. Its
general boundaries are, on the east and south, the Pruth and the Danube,

with the exception of the Dobrudscha south of the latter river, at its
embouchures, and on the west and north by the Carpathian mountains,
along whose heights the boundary line runs. The limit which separates
it from Bulgaria, on the south-east leaves the Danube just east of
Silistria, and runs irregularly in a south-easterly direction until it
reaches the Black Sea, about nine miles and a half south of Mangalia.
(North-east of this line runs the Roumanian Railway from Cernavoda to
Constanta or Kustendjie, and south-west of it the Bulgarian line from
Rustchuk to Varna.) The kingdom presents the form of an irregular
blunted crescent, and it is very difficult to speak of its 'length' and
'breadth;' but so far as we are able to estimate its dimensions they are as
follows:--A straight line drawn from Verciorova, the boundary on the
west at the 'Iron Gates' of the Danube, to the Sulina mouth of the same
river on the east, is about 358 miles; and another from the boundary
near Predeal in the Carpathians, on the line of railway from Ploiesti to
Kronstadt, Transylvania, to the southernmost limit below Mangalia on
the Black Sea, is about 188 miles.[3]
The approximate area of Roumania is 49,250 square miles, and when it
is added that the area of England and Wales is nearly 51,000 square
miles, the reader will be able to form an estimate of the extent of the
country.[4] But having made this comparison, let us carry it a step
further. According to the latest estimates of the population there are
about 5,376,000 inhabitants in Roumania against 25,968,286
(according to last year's census) in England and Wales; in other words,
with an area equal to that of England, Roumania has about one-fifth of
its population, or about the same as Ireland.[5]
The general configuration of the surface of the country may be
described as an irregular inclined plane sloping down from the summits
of the Carpathians to the northern or left bank of the Danube, and it is
traversed by numerous watercourses taking their rise in the mountains
and falling into the great river, which render it well adapted for every
kind of agricultural industry. The character of the gradients will be best
understood by a reference to the map, with the aid of the following few
figures. The towns of Galatz and Braila or Ibrail, situated on the
Danube, are fifteen mètres above the sea-level, a mètre being, as the

reader doubtless knows, equal to 1.095, or as nearly as possible 1-1/10
yard. At Bucarest, the capital, which is thirty or forty miles inland, the
land rises to a height of seventy-seven mètres;[6] still further inland,
where the elevation from the plain to the hill country becomes
perceptible, the town of Ploiesti is 141 mètres above the sea, whilst
Tirgovistea and Iasi (Jassy), each receding further into the hills, stand
respectively at altitudes of 262 and 318 mètres, the last-named city (the
former capital of Moldavia) reaching therefore a height of over 1,000
feet above the sea-level. Or again, the plain which stretches along the
whole extent of the southern part of the country may be said to occupy,
roughly speaking, about a third; then comes a region of hills rising to a
height of about