rabia for the Dobrudscha, which
has not been done by Roumanian writers since that alteration was made.
The _Gotha Almanack_ of 1881 gives the area as 129,947 square kilos.]

[Footnote 5: There has been no census in Roumania since 1859-60, when
the population is said to have been 4,424,961; now it is set down as
above, and efforts have been made to analyse this estimate and to
classify the population according to nationalities and religion. It is,
however, quite impossible to do so with accuracy; indeed the census of
Galatz taken last year shows that the whole can hardly be regarded as
approximate. What we know is that _about_ 4,600,000 of the population
are Roumanians and of the Orthodox Greek faith; probably 400,000 are
Jews, 200,000 gipsies, and the rest Germans, Szeklers, Servians and
Bulgarians, Hungarians, Armenians, Russians, Greeks, Turks, French,
English, Swiss, &c.]

[Footnote 6: Prince Jon Ghika says 87 metres.]

[Footnote 7: According to various works and maps, the heights of the
mountain summits differ. In his work, _Terra Nostra_, edition of 1880,
M. Aurelian gives the height of Pionul as 2,720.1 metres, or about 8,934
English feet, and that of Caraiman as 2,650.2 metres, or 8,705 feet; but
some of the maps give measurements differing from these.]

[Footnote 8: Fuller details concerning the soil and agricultural
productions will be found in the chapter devoted to those subjects.]

II.

The appearance of the plain on leaving the flat monotonous banks of the
Danube is anything but prepossessing. Although the land begins to rise
almost immediately, the surrounding scenery is flat and arid. The soil,
which is black or dark grey, is chiefly argillo-siliceous, and the plain
is overrun with coarse grass, weeds, and stunted shrubs, diversified by
fields of maize, patches of yellow gourds, and kitchen vegetables. Here
and there the railway runs through or skirts plantations. The chief
plants in this region (and this applies to the plains generally) are
willows, alders, poplars, and tamarinds, but chiefly willows and poplars
amongst the trees and larger plants; maize, wheat, millet, and other
cereals, and a variety of fruits and vegetables which will be spoken of
in connection with the more elevated regions. The first impression which
is made upon the traveller coming from our own beautiful hedgerows and
pastures, or from the richly cultivated plains of Transylvania, is that
agriculture is slovenly and neglec