RUMANIA, roo-man'tif-a, or ROU MANIA, a kingdom of southeastern Europe, bounded by Hungary, Ukraine, the Black Sea, Bulgaria and Jugoslavia. Area, 50,720 square miles. It comprised the provinces of Moldavia' and Wallachia, prior to 23 Dec. 1861, Danubian principalities. The principal towns are Buchar est, the capital, Jassy, Galatz, Braila, Botosai, Ploesti, Craiova, Berlad, Foscani.
Topography.— The surface consists mainly of undulating and well-watered plains of great fertility; from the Carpathian Mountains on the north and west borders, where the summits range from 2,600 feet to 8,800 feet, they grad ually slope downward to the • river Danube which for 595 miles flows through Rumanian territory, and with Bulgaria forms the major portion of the southern. boundary. The entire kingdom is in the basin of the Danube, the chief Rumanian tributaries of which are the. Alt 'or Aluta, the Arjiah, Jalomnitza, Buzeo, Sereth, Berlad and Pruth. The Danube forms a num- . ber of marshy lakes as it approaches the. alluvial region of the Dobrudja, which is mostly a land of steppes and marshes, unhealthful and unctilti- ' vated, through which the Danube discharges itself into the Blwk Sea by the Saint George, Sulina and Kilia channels.
Geology, Natural Resource., etc.— In the , region of the Carpathians the geology is of the Tertiary period practically completed at the end of the Miocene period and almost entirely com posed of primitive rocks. The kingdom pos sesses considerable, mineral wealth; rock-salt abounds in the vicinity of the Carpathian Moun tains, and the salt nurses of Wallachia are ap parently inexhaustible. Petroleum and asphalt are abundant; great quantity, of saltpetre is produced, chiefly in the northern part of the . country; sulphur is found in more limited quan tities. The only metal of importance is copper, which has been worked to some extent; gold is washed from the sands of several streams, how ever. About one-sixth of the surface is covered. with forests of oak, fir, beach and other valu able timber trees.
The fauna includes stagS, bears, wolves, foxes, wild goats, wild boars, hares and mar tens; while fish abound in the rivers. The climate is subject to greater extremes than at the same latitude in other parts of Europe. , The summer is hot and rainless; the winter, sudden and severe, the Danube and its tribu taries being regularly frozen for about six weeks; there is almost no spring, liut the' autumn is • ng and pleasant. Rumania is an , essentially a ricultural and pastoral state, fully 70 per cent ( f the inhabitants being directly en gaged in The chief cereal crops are maize, whet t, barley, rye and oats; tobacco, hemp and fli,x are also grown, and wine is pro duced on the hills at the foot of the Car pathians. Cattle, sheep and horses are reared in large numbers.
Manufactures, Commerce, etc.— Since the passing of the law in 1887 for promoting na tional industries some progress has been made in manufactures, chiefly along the line of domes tic commodities. Trade is fairly active, but is almost entirely in the hands of foreigners; the internal trade is chiefly carried on by Jews, who are subject to certain disabilities. The chief exports are grain (especially maize), cattle, timber and fruit; the chief imports, manufac tured goods, coal, etc. Germany, Great Britain and Austria-Hungary appropriate by far the greatest share of the foreign trade, the bulk of which passes through the Black Sea ports. In 1913-14 the exports were valued at $134,141,060, the imports at $118,002,520. In 1914 there were 2,299 miles of state railway, 5,618 miles of telegraph lines and a rapidly gxtending tele phone system. The government monopolizes also salt and tobacco. The French decimal coinage has been introduced, the franc being called leu (pl. lei), the centime bari. The metric system of weights and measures has also been officially recognized, but a diversity of local standards is still common.