The slope of the hills is pretty uniform from the crest of the mountains to the plain of the Danube, and the zones of temperature and vegetation succeed each other with singular regularity. Summits covered with forests of conifers and birch, and clad with snow during winter, rise near the frontiers of Transylvania. These are succeeded by mountains of inferior height, where beeches and chestnuts predominate, and all the picturesque beauties of European forest scenery are met with. Lower still we come upon gentle hills, with groves of oaks and maples, and their sunny sides covered with vines. Finally, we enter the wide plains of the Danube, with their fruit trees, poplars, and willows. The zone lying between the high mountains and the plain abounds in localities rendered delightful by picturesque rocks, luxuriant and varied verdure, and limpid streams. In this “happy {158} Arcadia” we meet with most of the large monasteries, magnificent castles with domes and towers, standing in the midst of parks and gardens. As to the plains, they are no doubt barren and monotonous in many places, but the villagers, though their habitations are half buried in the ground, enjoy the magnificent prospect of the blue mountains which bound the horizon. The most characteristic objects in these lowlands are the huge hay-ricks already figured upon Trajan’s column at Rome. [Illustration: Fig. 44.—THE RIVERS SHIL AND OLTO. Scale 1 : 1,400,000.] {159} The Rumanian campagna is a second Lombardy, not because of the high state of its agriculture, but because of the fertility of its soil, the beauty of the sky, and of the distant views. Unfortunately there are no mountain barriers to protect it against the cold north-easterly winds which predominate throughout the year. Extremes of cold and heat have to be encountered.[46] The vines have to be covered with earth to protect them against the colds of winter; and in South-eastern Wallachia, which is most exposed to the violence of the winds, it happens sometimes that herds of cattle and horses, flying before a snow-storm, precipitate themselves into the floods of the Danube. Several districts suffer from want of rain, and are veritable steppes. Amongst these are the plains of the Baragan, between the Danube and Yalomitza, where bustards abound, and a tree is not met with for miles.