Countess Stuart D'Albany

“ Pursuing the course of a small stream which winds through the valley, we arrive at a mill surrounded by meadows, and about three-quarters of a mile farther reach the opening of the chasm.
To the left the face of the hill is bare; on the right still covered with umbrage, though now the foliage is dwindled into copse; but as we advance the stream becomes enclosed between rocks, vegetation disappears, and the cliffs exhibit a more imposing sight at every step, till suddenly we stand in the gorge of the Torda. ”

“ The ruins of a thousand churches, towers, pillars, and obelisks seem to rise before us in fearful confusion. The mind feels overpowered by the awful devastation; the cliffs are brown, white, and red, giving the appearance of a city destroyed by fire. The bed of the stream is in some places twenty-four feet, in others forty feet wide; but the breadth of the chasm increases with the height, until the summits of the rocks on either side are about a musket-shot apart. The extent of the chasm is something more than half a mile, and the height of the craigs exceeds that of the loftiest tower. ”

“ Beyond the right bank of the Manos, [1] in the range of hills which extends to the western Alps, or snowy mountains of Transylvania, is a gigantic and wondrous chasm, called “The Torda-hasadik,” and which gives name to the town of Torda, though it is eight miles distant. ”