power for thousands of floating watermills, which lie moored in
the shallows. It is fed by many tributaries, which rise in the
Carpathians as mountain torrents, growing broad and sluggish as
they flow south-eastward through the central Rumanian plain. In
Walachia, it is joined by the Jiu (or Schyl) opposite Rahova; by
the Olt (ancient Aluta) at Turnu Magurele; by the united streams
of the Dimbovitza (Damboviţa) and Argesh (Argeş) at Oltenitza;
by the Jalomitza (Ialomįţa) opposite Hirsova. The Olt pierces
the Carpathians, by way of the Rothenthurm Pass, and forms the
boundary of Little (i.e. western) Walachia, or Oltland. The Sereth
(Siretu or Seretu) flows for about 340 m. from its Transylvanian
source through Moldavia, and meets the Danube near Galatz, after
receiving the Moldova, Bistritza (Bistriţa), Trotosh (Trotoşǔ),
Milcovǔ, Putna, Râmnicǔ and Buzěu on the west; and the Bêrlad
(Bêrladǔ) on the east. The Milcovǔ was the former boundary
between Walachia and Moldavia. The Pruth rises on the northern
limit of Moldavia, forms the eastern frontier for 330 m., and falls
into the Danube 10 m. E. of Galatz. Its chief Rumanian tributaries
are the Basheu (Başeǔ) and Jijia, rivers of the north. The Dobrudja
(q.v.) or Dobrogea covers about 2900 sq. m. between the Black
Sea and the lower reaches of the Danube. Its high crystalline
rocks, covered with sedimentary formations, descend abruptly
towards the delta, but more gradually towards the south, where
the Bulgarian steppes encroach upon Rumanian soil. The few
small rivers which drain the hills generally flow seaward, but those
of the delta and steppes belong to the Danubian system. The
coast is a low-lying region of sandhills, meres and marshes with
one lagoon, 42 m. long, connected by a short stream with the St
George Mouth. Its outlet on the sea is named the Portidje Mouth
(Gura portiţiǐ) of the Danube. North of this, the lagoon is called
Lake Razim; while its southern half, shut off by three long islands,
is the Blue Lake (Sinoe Osëro, in Bulgarian).
Apart from the Dobrudja, the whole of Rumania is included in the northern basin of the lower Danube. It consists of a single inclined plane stretching upwards, with a north-westerly direction, from the left bank of the river to the summits of the Carpathians. It is divided into three zones steppe, forest and alpine. The first begins beyond the mud-flats and reed-beds which line the water's edge, and is a vast monotonous lowland, sloping so gently as to seem almost level. The surface is a yellow clay, with patches of brown or dark grey, outliers of the Russian “black earth.” Cereals, chiefly maize, with green crops and fields of gourds, alternate with fallow land overgrown by coarse grasses, weeds and stunted shrubs. Among the scanty trees, willows and poplars are commonest. The second zone extends over the foothills and lower ridges of the Carpathians. This region, called by Rumans “the district of vines,” is the most fertile portion of the country. In it grow most fruits and flowers which thrive in a temperate climate. Oaks, elms, firs, ashes and beeches are the principal forest trees. The third zone covers the higher mountains on their southern and eastern sides, whose violently contorted strata leave many transverse valleys, though usually inclining laterally towards the south-east. The birch and larch woods of this zone give way to pine forests as the altitude increases; and the pines to mosses, lichens and alpine plants, just below the jagged iron-grey peaks, many of which attain altitudes of 6000 to 8000 ft.
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| Emery Walker sc. |
Geology.—The axis of the Transylvanian Alps consists of sericite schists and other similar rocks; and these are followed on the south by Jurassic, Cretaceous and Early Tertiary beds. The Jurassic and Cretaceous beds are ordinary marine sediments, but from the Cenomanian to the Oligocene the deposits are of the peculiar facies known in the Alps and Carpathians as Flysch. Farther north, the Flysch forms practically the whole of the Rumanian flank of the Carpathians. Along the foot of the Carpathians lies a broad trough of Miocene salt-bearing beds, and in this trough the strata are sometimes horizontal and sometimes strongly folded. Outside the band of Miocene beds the Sarmatian, Pontian and Levantine series, often concealed by Quaternary deposits, cover the great part of the Danube plain. Even the Pontian beds are sometimes folded. In the Dobrudja crystalline rocks, presumably of ancient date, rise through the Tertiary and recent deposits and form the hills which lie between the Danube and the Black Sea.[1]
Climate.—The Rumanian climate alternates between extreme cold in winter, when the thermometer may; fall to -20° Fahrenheit and extreme heat in summer, when it may rise to 100° in the shade. Autumn is the mildest season; spring lasts only for a few weeks. Spring at Bucharest has a mean temperature of 53°; summer,
- ↑ See L. Teisseyre and L. Mrazec, Aperçu géologique sur les formations salifères et les gisements de sel en Roumanie, Moniteur des intérêts pétrolifères roumains (1902), pp. 3-51; S. Stefanescu, Étude sur les terrains tertiaires de Roumanie (1897); J. Bergeron, “Observations relatives à la structure de la haute vallée de la Jalomita (Roumanie) et des Carpathes roumaines,” Bull. Soc. Géol. France, ser. 4, vol. iv. (1904), pp. 54-77.
