The success of this novel enterprise prompted the authorities to essay a more daring project--the erection of a lighthouse upon the caisson principle on the Outer Diamond Shoal, off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. But the storms encountered off this inhospitable coast have proved too overpowering for the engineer. Numerous attempts have been made, but disaster has been their invariable fate. The Diamond Shoal refuses to be indicated by anything except a lightship. CHAPTER XI SOME LIGHT PATROLS OF THE FRENCH COAST In the matter of safeguarding its shores the French nation has displayed considerable enterprise, and its engineers have added some magnificent contributions to this field of engineering. The maintenance and welfare of these aids to navigation is placed in the hands of the Service des Phares, which is controlled by the Department of Bridges and Roads. The French scheme is the disposition of the lights along the shore in such a way that their ranges overlap on either side, so that, as one passes along the coast, before one ray is dropped the next is picked up. Electricity is employed extensively as the illuminant, so that the lights are of great power and twinkle like brilliant white stars on a clear night. While the majority of these guides are erected on the mainland, others rise from islands lying off the coast, which, by their position in deep water, render navigation hazardous. The finest expressions of French lighthouse engineering are to be found along the rugged islet-dotted coast of the huge indentation in which lie the Channel Islands--the cruel coast of Brittany. It was off the western extremity of Brittany, which thrusts itself well out into the Atlantic Ocean, forming the point generally known as Ushant, that the _Drummond Castle_ lost her way, to pull up with a fatal crash against one of the jagged reefs stretching to seaward. While this wreck was but one of many in these troubled waters, it sent a thrill round the world, owing to the terrible loss of life with which it was accompanied. It is not surprising, therefore, that the French Government has endeavoured to remove the evil notoriety which this coast has reaped, and to render it as safe as the other stretches lying to the north and south. The conditions, however, are against the engineer, as the nose of the mainland projects well into the ocean, and receives the full brunt of its attacks when gales rage, so that a foothold is precarious.