14 
YASS PLAINS. 
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 re- 
maining 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 in- 
appropi’ialely 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 for- 
mation. 
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 bounda- 
ries. They are surrounded on every side by forests, and 
excepting to the W. N. W., as a central point, by hill. Un- 
dulating, 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 
