1 The sun was almost down on the mountain tops, and the shadows of the whole group fell long upon the snow.
2 All yesterday we travel, ever getting closer to the mountains, and moving into a more and more wild and desert land.
3 It seemed as though the mountain range had separated two atmospheres, and that now we had got into the thunderous one.
4 Then the mountains seemed to come nearer to us on each side and to frown down upon us; we were entering on the Borgo Pass.
5 The sun was now right down upon the mountain top, and the red gleams fell upon my face, so that it was bathed in rosy light.
6 Far off I hear the howling of wolves; the snow brings them down from the mountains, and there are dangers to all of us, and from all sides.
7 They learned his secrets in the Scholomance, amongst the mountains over Lake Hermanstadt, where the devil claims the tenth scholar as his due.
8 Here and there seemed mighty rifts in the mountains, through which, as the sun began to sink, we saw now and again the white gleam of falling water.
9 It was strange to see the snow falling in such heavy flakes close to us, and beyond, the sun shining more and more brightly as it sank down towards the far mountain tops.
10 It is now not far off sunset time, and over the snow the light of the sun flow in big yellow flood, so that we throw great long shadow on where the mountain rise so steep.
11 We saw it in all its grandeur, perched a thousand feet on the summit of a sheer precipice, and with seemingly a great gap between it and the steep of the adjacent mountain on any side.
12 But all was indeed changed; the frowning mountains seemed further away, and we were near the top of a steep-rising hill, on summit of which was such a castle as Jonathan tell of in his diary.
13 Strangely enough those pursued did not seem to realise, or at least to care, that they were pursued; they seemed, however, to hasten with redoubled speed as the sun dropped lower and lower on the mountain tops.
14 To the west was a great valley, and then, rising far away, great jagged mountain fastnesses, rising peak on peak, the sheer rock studded with mountain ash and thorn, whose roots clung in cracks and crevices and crannies of the stone.
15 I find that the district he named is in the extreme east of the country, just on the borders of three states, Transylvania, Moldavia and Bukovina, in the midst of the Carpathian mountains; one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe.