The proximity of the Black Sea and of Mount Hæmus on one side, and that of the Carpathian Mountains on the other, render the climate of the principalities variable, and subject to sudden changes from heat to cold.
When the wind comes from the north-east, even in the middle of summer, it cools the atmosphere to such a degree, as to force the inhabitants to cover themselves with additional clothing. The southerly wind brings heat and fine weather; but it seldom lasts any length of time.
A great quantity of rain falls during the summer, and in the months of June and July it is always accompanied by storms of wind and thunder, which regularly return every day at the same hour towards the evening.
The winter is almost always long and tedious, and the summer heats set in all at once at the beginning of May, so that the beauties of a regular spring are little seen or known.
The severest part of the winter begins early in December, and the same degree of cold, with little variation, lasts until the middle of February, when a damp and unhealthy temperature succeeds, and continues until May. The Danube and all the rivers that fall into it from the principalities generally remain frozen for six weeks, and the ice is thick enough to bear with perfect safety the heaviest artillery. The snow lies on the ground the whole of January and February, and communications with every part of the country are carried on with sledges.
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.