invited me to his house and afterwards
furnished me with a supply of provisions for my party; but I carried my
own despatches, and a much shorter route led to the left by which I could
divide the way better in continuing my ride to the Gap, a small inn where
I arrived at a very late hour, the road having been soft, uneven, and
wholly through a dreary wood.

The noise and bustle of the house was quite refreshing to one who had
dwelt so long in deserts, although it seemed to promise little
accommodation, for there had been races in the neighbourhood and horses
lay about the yard. Nevertheless the waiter and his wife cleared for my
accommodation a room which had been full of noisy people, and my horses
were soon lodged snugly in the stable. There indeed I perceived more room
than the house afforded, for while the guests were regaling within their
horses were allowed to lay about to starve outside, as if so many gypsies
had been about the place; no uncommon circumstance in Australia.

October 30.

In the course of my ride this morning I recognised the poor scrubby land
about the southern boundary of the county of Argyle, which I had surveyed
in 1828. The wood on it is rather open, consisting of a stunted species
of eucalyptus, the grass, apparently a hard species of poa, affording but
little nourishment. Sandstone and quartz are the predominant rocks
although some of the most remarkable hills consist of trap.

BREDALBANE PLAINS.

Passing at length through a gap in a low ridge of granular quartz, we
entered upon Bredalbane plains, consisting of three open flats of grassy
land circumscribed by hills of little apparent height, and extending
about twelve miles in the direction of this road, their average width
being about two miles. Deringullen ponds arise in the most southern
plain, and are among the most eastern heads of the Lachlan. The plains
are situated on the high dividing ground or water shed between the
streams falling eastward and westward, and had probably once been lagoons
of the same character as those which still distinguish other portions of
this dividing ground.

LAKE GEORGE.

The most remarkable of these is Lake George, about fourteen miles further
to the south, and which in 1828 was a sheet of water seventeen miles in
length and seven in breadth. There is no outlet for the waters of this
lake although it receives no less than four mountain streams from the
hills north of it, namely Turallo creek, whos