Rumania or Romania

This great southern plain of Rumania is monotonous in its features. It slopes gently upwards from the Danube to the Car pathians and is intersected by a succession of rivers which, like the Dambovita, the Oltu and the Teleorman, rise on the southern and south-eastern slopes of the mountains and flow without much deviation into the Danube. Passage from east to west is thus much hindered and interrupted.

The Carpathians.

The Carpathians themselves form a re markable Alpine intrusion into what is, in part, a Pontic or semi Mediterranean setting. The mountains rise from the southern plains without much preliminary undulation. They achieve a maximum height of 2,400 metres in the peaks above Brasov (near Sinaia) at or near Piatra Craiului. The most formidable ridge lies between the passes at Brasov and Sibiu. All Alpine conditions are found here and Alpine flora and fauna contrast vividly with those of the wholly different regions to the south and east. Snow lies on the peaks far into the summer while at Sinaia and similar resorts snow covers the ground for almost half the year. North of the ridge the Transylvanian plateau extends in broken and hilly country of great fertility to the northern borders. The main and more abrupt face of the mountains is everywhere on the south and east. It serves as a most formidable barrier to invasion from the Black sea and Balkan regions and is far more easy to defend from the side of the plateau. Starting from the passage round the Carpathians at the Iron Gates the only passes across the southern part of the ridge are the Szurduk pass between Deva and Turgu Jiu, the Rothenturm pass between Sibiu (Hermann stadt) and Valcea, the Predeal pass between Brasov and Ploesti and the Oituz pass at the south-eastern extremity of the range. All admit of the passage of railroads and all except the last-named have rail-traffic now passing through them. From Oituz to the Polish frontier the range consists more of isolated masses and there is no continuous ridge of great height. It is crossed at sev eral places, notably by the railway from Ciuc Sereda to Focsani and further north again by the railway at Campulung.

Rivers.

The Transylvanian plateau itself is traversed by rivers that rise in the northern half of the range and flow west wards to the Theiss (Tina). One river only, the Oltu, flows from Transylvania to Walachia. It has cut the Sibiu-Valcea pass. The principal rivers of Transylvania are : the Maros, which rises in the mountains forming the eastern wall of Transylvania, and taking first a northern course flows through the country from east to west ; its principal affluents are the Gorgeny, the Great and Little Kokel or Nagy and Kis the Strell (Sztrigi) and the Cserna on the left, and on the right the Ampoly and the Aranyos, which is rich in auriferous sediments. The Maros (Mures) is the

largest and longest river of Transylvania. It forms the northern boundary of the Banat province, which is traversed also by some minor streams. This province forms the plain-land end of the gradually sloping plateau of Transylvania so that a traveller going from the Carpathian passes to the Theiss would on the whole be steadily descending. It is structurally part of the main Hungarian plain but historically and ethnically is a unity. It is rich, well watered and fertile, and in its southern corner, where it extends to the Danube, richly endowed with coal and other minerals. Central Transylvania produces gold in small quantities, but is mainly agricultural farmland. Fruit and vines, maize, wheat and rye are largely grown. Crops of hemp, flax and tobacco are also gathered though not in large quantities. Bears, wolves, foxes and boars are found in the abundant forests of the uplands. The goldmines are situated, as in antiquity, in the isolated mass of hills in the region of Kluj, in particular at Verespatak and in the mountains of Hunedoara, near Deva. In 590o the value of gold so obtained was i300,000. The gold is often found in combina tion with tellurium. Saline springs are common and salt is worked at Maros-Ujvar, Des-Akna-Kolozs, Torda and Vizakna. Of the 337,996 tons of salt obtained by the state monopoly in 1925 the bulk comes from these sources.

The Danube is a controlling feature in the life of the country. It first meets the Rumanian frontier at the Iron Gates and thence flows with a swift and deep stream to Kalafat. Here, taking a sharp turn eastwards it flows through open country with cliff banks on the Bulgarian side, and lagoons and marshes on the Rumanian. It gradually gains in width and volume but decreases in speed. It so runs without change, always with low hills on the south bank until Turnu Magurele and Giurgiu are reached. Islands are common throughout the later reaches. After Giurgiu the direction is north-east by east and the river opens out by Silistra into a maze of islands, shoals and sandbanks. At Giurgiu and Silistra are the two most important ferries. From Calarasi onwards the river has great width. It is bridged at Cernavoda by a bridge some 12 km. in length and this is the average width of the river for many miles. Near Braila and Galatz it widens still more and after its final sharp turn to the east at Galatz the Delta proper begins. The principal channel cuts through the centre of the Delta from Tulcea and enters the sea at Sulina. It is kept clear largely by dredging. There is no bridge over the Danube between Novisad in Yugoslavia and the sea except at Cernavoda.