Hence to Quoin Point (Coin-de-Mire) the coast has no sinuosities.  TETRODON BAY is seven miles wide and very shallow; it has two or three sandy islets in it, and can only be entered by small boats.  Near Refuge Point is a safe and convenient creek.  To the southward of this there are several shoal bays.  To the eastward of Cape Ransonnet, which is peaked and of a moderate elevation, there are several little creeks well adapted for boats and, to the westward, a sandy plain extends to the south extremity of the island.  That part of Shark’s Bay, between Dirk Hartog’s Island and Peron’s Peninsula, is formed by Le Passage Epineux, Useless Harbour (Havre Inutile) and Henry Freycinet’s Harbour:  to the southward of the line of bearing between Quoin Point and Cape Lesueur, the sea is shoal and studded with banks, but to the north it is quite open.

The Passage Epineux, which separates Dirk Hartog’s Island from the main, is about two miles wide; but the reefs and rocks, which protrude from either shore, reduce the passage to half that width.  The depth upon the rocky bar which stretches across the entrance is six fathoms, but immediately without it the depth is twenty-two fathoms.  M. De Freycinet says, that a ship upon a lee shore in the vicinity of Point Escarpee may enter this opening with confidence; she will find a good shelter and excellent anchorage in five and six fathoms fine sand.  To enter it, pass in mid-channel, if anything, borrowing upon Point Escarpee, and steer for the Mondrain de Direction, and pass over the bar without fearing the breakers upon it, which are caused by the sudden decrease of depth, from twenty-two to six fathoms; after this the depth will continue without altering more than one fathom.  The best anchorage is to the South-West of Cape Ransonnet, for within it the passage is blocked up by shoals, over which a boat cannot without difficulty pass.

USELESS HARBOUR is so shoal as to be, according to its name, quite unserviceable; since boats can with difficulty penetrate to the bottom, although its length is twenty-one miles:  HENRY FREYCINET HARBOUR is twenty-two leagues long in a South-East direction; and from three to six leagues wide.  Its entrance is blocked up by a bar; and, although the depth within is in some parts considerable, it is very doubtful whether ships can enter it.  The shores are difficult to land upon, from the shoals extending so far off.

On the western side of this harbour there are several inlets and deep bays, but too shoal to be of any service.  The eastern shore of the harbour is formed by PERON’S PENINSULA, which separates it from HAMELIN’S HARBOUR.  It is sixteen leagues long and five leagues wide.  DAMPIER’S BAY, at the north-west end, contains several sandy bays, where boats may almost always land.  It is here that the French had their observatory.

From the northern point of the peninsula, Pointe des Hauts-Fonds, the reefs extend for three leagues to the North and North-North-West.  They were then supposed to extend to the North-East.