From the latter part of September to the middle, and frequently to the end of, November, the days are the finest in the year. But the nights are excessively cold, and the night air particularly unwholesome. Travellers who do not take care to guard against its influence by flannels and thick clothing, are exposed to the danger of various kinds of fevers, and of the pleurisy. The irregularity of climate, the damp quality of the soil, and an abundance of marshy places throughout the principalities, produce a visible influence over the animals of the various sorts which are common to them, as well as over the vegetation. The bears, wolves, and foxes, are of the most timid nature; hardly any danger is to be apprehended from them, unless they are met in numerous flocks, as is common enough during the coldest winter nights. The domestic animals are also remarkable for mildness. The beef, pork, mutton, poultry, and game, have rather an insipid taste; the vegetables an inferior flavour, and the flowers little perfume. Finally, man, the chief work of nature, is here of a dull and heavy disposition: with weak passions, no strength of mind, and betraying a natural aversion to a life of industry or of mental exertion. Moral causes may indeed produce such effects upon the human frame; but here, those of a physical kind evidently act in unison with them, and with equal force. The education of the Boyars is usually confined to the mere knowledge of reading and writing the language of the country, and the modern Greek. Some few add to this superficial stock of learning, a few of the rudiments of the French language, which has been introduced by the Russian officers among them. Many more understand and speak it without the least knowledge of its letters or grammar. If any are able to talk familiarly, though imperfectly, of one or two ancient or celebrated authors, or make a few bad verses that will rhyme, they assume the title of literati and poets, and they are looked upon by their astonished countrymen as endowed with superior genius and abilities. An early propensity to learning and literature receives but little encouragement; and, at a more advanced period in life, the allurements of public employment, the petty intrigues at court, and the absence of every obstacle to pursuits of gallantry and pleasure, induce even the best disposed to set aside every other occupation. Public schools have, since several years, been established both at Bukorest and Yassi. They are supported at public expense, and attended by masters for the Wallachian, ancient and modern Greek languages, writing, and arithmetic. The number of students at each school amounts at the present moment to about two hundred. They are the sons of inferior Boyars and tradesmen. The children of the principal Boyars receive their education at home from private tutors, commonly Greek priests, who are not natives of the principalities.