In 1888 the present magnificent lighthouse was brought into service. It is a ferro-concrete tower of octagonal shape rising from a massive plinth of the same form, and is provided with four equidistantly-spaced wing buttresses to hold the structure more rigid in rough weather. The building is set on a knoll rising 20 feet above the water, and about 2,100 yards east of the extremity of the western dry spit of land, so that the Atlantic will have to gnaw a considerable distance before it will render the position of this light untenable. The tower is 97 feet in height, bringing the white ray 118 feet above the level of the sea. The light is of the group revolving type, thrown once every three minutes. The warning is made up of three flashes, with an eclipse of thirty seconds between each flash, followed by darkness for ninety seconds, and may be seen sixteen miles away. While the beacon mounts guard over the main end of the island on one side, there is a dangerous submerged bar which runs north-westwards and westwards for seventeen miles. The light at the east end, which was erected in 1873, is likewise carried on an octagonal tower 81 feet high, but, being set upon a more commanding position, the beam is elevated to 123 feet. It is erected five miles south-westwards of the extreme tip of the island, and gives a white flash at intervals of three seconds, followed by an eclipse of fifteen seconds; it may be picked up seventeen miles away. Similarly, this light mounts guard over a submerged sand-bar, which extends eastwards for at least fourteen miles. During the late summer and autumn the majority of the vessels plying between ports on the St. Lawrence and Europe take the shorter route round the northern corner of Newfoundland through the Straits of Belle Ile. This is a highly dangerous passage, inasmuch as the narrow streak of water, seventy miles in length, with a maximum width of eleven miles, separating the frowning coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador, is strewn with menaces, the most formidable of which is Belle Ile, which lies right in the centre of the entrance from the ocean. The island is really a lofty hump of rock, twenty-one miles in circumference, with the shores for the most part dropping precipitously into the water. It is an extremely lonely spot, and, naturally, is feared by the mariner. His apprehensions, however, have been considerably relieved, because the channel is brilliantly lighted by several powerful lights visible from twelve to twenty-eight miles, while another is being established. [Illustration: _By permission of the Lighthouse Literature Mission._ ST. ESPRIT ISLAND LIGHT, NOVA SCOTIA. Its white revolving light is visible for 14 miles.] [Illustration: THE GULL ISLAND LIGHT, NEWFOUNDLAND. A very lonely beacon, visible for 27 miles.]