The navigation of the south shore of Devonshire is much more important than that of the north; partly because of the number of ports in the county itself, and partly because the English Channel is a much more crowded waterway. The principal danger to navigation on the south coast is the group of reefs called the Eddystone Rocks, fourteen miles south-south-west of the entrance of Plymouth Sound. They are all covered at high tide, but the top of one of them is nineteen feet above low-water mark. In Plymouth Sound itself, especially near the eastern shore, there are many rocks and shallow patches. The most conspicuous of the former is the Mewstone, 194 feet high. On the Shagstone, a little farther in, the P. and O. steamship _Nepaul_ was lost. From this point eastward the coast is fringed with rocks and small islets, most of them close in-shore. But from the Start a chain of sandbanks called the Skerries extends out some miles from the land. From Bigbury Bay to the Start is one of the most dangerous parts of the coast, and has been the scene of many wrecks. Here, to name a few of many instances, were lost the _Ramillies_, of whose crew 708 were drowned; the _Chanteloupe_, when only one man was saved; the _Marana_, from which seven men escaped; and the _Dryad_, on which every man perished. [Illustration: The Eddystone Lighthouse] From the mouth of the Dart to Hope's Nose there are many outlying rocks; but from that headland to the Dorsetshire border the coast is comparatively "clean," that is to say, free from obstructions. All the rivers east of Plymouth Sound are more or less blocked by bars, with the exception of the Dart, whose entrance, however, is strewn with rocks. To warn the sailor against these and other dangers, buoys, bells, beacons, fog-horns or sirens, guns or explosive signals, and lighthouses have been provided at many points along the Devonshire coasts. There are also numerous storm-signalling stations, and there are no fewer than thirteen lifeboats, of which eight are on the south coast. The men of the thirty-three Devonshire Coastguard stations have been the means of saving many lives. On the two coasts, including Lundy, there are in all fifty-one lights of various sorts and sizes, from the eight first-class lighthouses with massive stone towers, of which the most famous although not the most powerful is the Eddystone, down to the small but useful lights of a hundred candle-power or less, most of which are connected with quays and harbours; while others, like that at Clovelly, lighted only in the fishing-season, are temporary, a number of them consisting merely of a lantern on the top of a post. A hut that carries the red and white lights at the mouth of the Barnstaple river is on wheels, and is moved as the bar shifts its position.