17 
Sharks Bay forms one of the few striking features of the coast, which, as. a 
rule, is singularly unindented or broken. It is a good harbour, but shallow, 
protected from the; West and North-West at its entrance by Bernier and Dorre 
Islands, the main entrances being Geographe Channel at the North, between 
Bernier Island and the mainland; Naturaliste Channel in the middle, between 
Dorre and Dirk Hartog’s Island; whilst at the South there is Epireux or False 
Entrance, but here the water is too shallow to allow any tiling but small coasting 
boats to enter. 
To the South, Sharks Bay is split up into two main gulfs by Peron’s 
Peninsula; the one to the West, or at the back of Dirk Hartog’s Island, being 
called in the Northern part Denham Sound, but further South Freycinet Estuary, 
whilst the one on the Eastern side of Peron’s Peninsula is called Hamelin Pool. 
The islands here, and the coast down to the mouth of the Murchison, present low 
vertical cliff faces to the sea, composed of coastal limestones of very recent age, the 
fossils from which embrace most of the existing types. 
Between the Wooramel and the Gascoyne there is a belt of high stony table¬ 
land, the Western portion of which is called the “ Byro Plains ” and the Eastern the 
“ McAdam Plains.” The stones and boulders strewn here on the surface in the 
Western portion are derived from boulder beds of the Carboniferous or Devonian 
series, but those on the upper or Eastern portion are derived direct from the 
crystalline rock and quartz reefs. 
The Wooramel River is about 150 miles in length. It flows in a Westerly direc¬ 
tion from a point near the Upper Murchison to Hamelin Pool, Sharks Bay. Very 
little is known of this river generally, as the country along its banks is poor, and 
it is off the main track to the North, but from a geological point of view it is one 
of the most interesting rivers in the Colony, as a better senes of rocks are exposed 
m its cliff than in any other river. 
Near its mouth, after leaving the low coastal limestone, it flows through a 
sandy table-land, at the base of which are the Tertiary rocks with fossils, whilst 
further East the Mesozoic series are crossed, and so on to the Carboniferous sand¬ 
stone, shales and limestone with fossils, while further East the crystalline rocks 
with quartz reefs outcrop. 
This river, iu its upper courses, flows over good sized alluvial flats with out¬ 
crops of crystalline rocks here and there, often capped by ferruginous sandstone, 
with here and there patches of earthy limestone, but below where it cuts the 
Carboniferous rocks it flows in a large deep valley, with' cliffs on either side, on 
the top of which is a sandy table-land. 
The Victoria District. 
This district extends along the coast from Sharks Bay South to Jurien Bay 
and Eastward to the South Australian boundary. 
The Murchison discharges itself into the sea at Gantheaume Bay, about GO 
tniles North of G-eraldton. 
In the first 30 miles of its course from the coast, the river forms a large 
bend, first to the North and then South, passing through a broken Mesozoic table- 
hand (which is the Northern extension of the flat-topped hills about Northampton) ; 
whilst in the bed of the river, in places, the shales similar to those of the Irwin 
and Greenough are met with, but in which no fossils have yet been found by which 
fneir age can be determined. 
In the bed of the river, at the Geraldine Mine, about 30 miles from the coast, 
Metamorphic rocks with rich lead lodes outcrop : these latter were worked many 
years ago, and a. large deserted village with fine mine buildings and smelting 
works are still standing. 
B 
