272 Mediterranean Peninsulas. 
TURKISH AND SLAVISH TERRITORIES. 
The Turks for centuries warred with, had under vas- 
salage or otherwise controlled, and misruled all the 
Slavis States, (as well as Macedonia and Greece) a 
territory of around 170,000 square miles and 16,000,000 
people until, by the Congress of Berlin (1878), ending 
the Russo-Turkish war, the former were recognized as 
independent kingdoms, namely Bulgaria, Servia, Mon- 
tenegro, Roumelia and Roumania, while Bosnia-Her- 
cegovina was placed under Austrian administration (see 
pages 144 and 155). 
With the exception of Roumania, these people are still 
in the lower stages of civilization, the countries un- 
developed, the forest still serves largely for the mast and 
pasturage, probably less than 24 per cent. of the country 
being forest covered, mostly with deciduous trees, oak, 
beech and walnut, etc. 
Roumania alone has systematically taken advantage of 
her freedom from Turkish rule in developing a modern 
civilization, and can also boast the beginning of a for- 
estry system. 
Macedonia, and the other parts of Turkey in Europe 
(Albania and Thrace) with 67,000 square miles and 
5,000,000 people, contain large areas of untouched forest 
(not less than 5,000,000 acres in Macedonia alone*) with 
valuable oak and walnut, which have remained unused 
owing to their inaccessibility and the undesirability of 
developing them under Turkish rule. Where accessible, 
the forest is maltreated or destroyed. 
Bulgaria, to which, in 1885, Eastern Roumelia was at- 
tached, represents now 38,000 square miles and 
*Lacretelle, Rapport sur les foréts de la Macédoine, 1898. 
