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 1,500 feet; and beyond these the Carpathian
range, forming, as it were, a great rampart to the north and east,
reckons amongst its eight or nine hundred peaks many that rise to a
height of 6,000 to 9,000 feet above the sea-level. The highest of those
summits is either Pionul (in Moldavia) or Caraiman, near Sinaia
(Wallachia), the summer residence of the Court, which are nearly 9,000
feet high; the latter is easily accessible, even to ladies if they are
fair climbers, and affords a magnificent view of the surrounding
scenery.[7] The aspect of the country, as the traveller moves inland
from the Danube to the heights of the Carpathians, is very striking; and
as the writer travelled at one time or another along the greater part
of the river, both by land and water, and from the bank at Giurgevo to
the frontier in the mountains, a brief account of his impressions and
observations may be found more interesting than a mere dry geographical
description of the different zones.[8]

[Footnote 3: The mode in which we ascertained these measurements was by
comparing four, independently made. One was by Mr. Weller, the artist of
our maps; the second by the author, being the average of four or five
maps; the third by an English official friend in Roumania, who has all
the best maps at his disposal; and the fourth from Baedeker. Designating
these respectively as _a_, _b_, _c_, and _d_, we obtained the following
very approximate results:--

From Verciorova to the Sulina From Predeal to boundary S. of
mouth. Mangalia.

_a_ 355 miles _a_ 185 miles
_b_ 356 " _b_ 188 "
_c_ 358 " _c_ 189 "
_d_ 360 " _d_ 190 "

From Fife-Cookson's map, in his work _With the Armies of the Balkans_,
the measurements respectively are 355 and 186 miles.]

[Footnote 4: The area is obtained by a somewhat similar process to the
linear measurements, excepting that here we have been obliged to employ
figures from various works (notably that of M. Aurelian and the Reports
of Consul Vivian and of the Roumanian Geographical Society), and to take
into consideration the exchange of Bessa