broken
country, which was very far from being deficient in pasture. We
encamped on the side of a water-course, about 4 o'clock, having
travelled about fifteen miles.

On the 19th, we observed no change in the soil or aspect of the
country, for the first five miles. The eucalyptus mannifera was the
most prevalent of the forest trees, and certainly its presence
indicated a more flourishing state in the minor vegetation. At about
five miles, however, from where we had slept, sandstone reappeared, and
with it the barren scrub that usually grows upon a sandy and
inhospitable soil. One of the drays was upset in its progress down a
broken pass, where the road had been altogether neglected, and it was
difficult to avoid accidents. Fortunately we suffered no further than
in the delay that the necessity of unloading the dray, and reloading
it, occasioned. Mr. O'Brien, an enterprising settler, who had pushed
his flocks to the banks of the Morumbidgee, and who was proceeding to
visit his several stations, overtook us in the midst of our troubles.
We had already passed each other frequently on the road, but he now
preceded me to his establishment at Yass; at which I proposed remaining
for a day. We stopped about three miles short of the plains for the
night, at the gorge of the pass through which we had latterly been
advancing, and had gradually descended to a more open country. From the
place at which we were temporarily delayed, and which is not
inappropriately called the Devil's Pass, the road winds about between
ranges, differing in every respect from any we had as yet noticed. The
sides of the hills were steeper, and their summits sharper, than any we
had crossed. They were thickly covered with eucalypti and brush, and,
though based upon sandstone, were themselves of a schistose formation.

YASS PLAINS.

Yharr or Yass Plains were discovered by Mr. Hovel, and Mr. Hume, the
companion of my journey down the Macquarie, in 1828. They take their
name from the little river that flows along their north and north-west
boundaries. They are surrounded on every side by forests, and excepting
to the W.N.W., as a central point, by hill. Undulating, but naked
themselves, they have the appearance of open downs, and are most
admirably adapted for sheep-walks, not only in point of vegetation, but
also, because their inequalities prevent their becoming swampy during
the rainy season. They are from nine to twelve miles in length, and
from fiv