The conquest of the Tillamook Rock has been one of the most difficult tasks that the United States Lighthouse Board ever has accomplished. The little band of quarrymen who braved danger, hardship, and privation, effected occupation of the rock on October 21, 1879, and the light was exhibited for the first time on January 21, 1881, the total time occupied in the task being 575 days. It has robbed the dreaded Oregon coast of one of its worst perils, and the money which was devoted to the provision of this stalwart guardian--£24,698, or $123,493--was indeed expended to good purpose. CHAPTER XV THE COAST LIGHTS OF THE UNITED STATES Few nations have such a varied coastline to guard as the United States. On the Atlantic seaboard the northern shore is a shaggy bold rampart of lofty cliff, hard and pitiless. Farther south the rock gradually gives way to sandy dunes, which the hungry sea is continually gnawing away here and piling up somewhere else. Then, as the tropics are entered, the sand in turn gives way to coral reefs, every whit as formidable as rock and as treacherous as sand, where the hurricane reigns supreme and makes its presence felt only too frequently. Across the continent a similar variation, though not perhaps so intense, is observable on the Pacific side. The coast range runs parallel with the shore, and consequently cliff and precipice are common, owing to the lateral spurs of the range coming to an abrupt termination where land and water meet. The result is that no one type of beacon is possible of adoption as a standard for the whole coastline. The class of structure has to be modified to meet local conditions, but the battle between destruction and preservation is none the less bitter and continuous. When ships began to trade with the Atlantic seaboard of the United States, the erection of warning lights became imperative. This duty was fulfilled in the early days by local enterprise, and the first lighthouse on the continent was built on Little Brewster Island, at the entrance to Boston Harbour. It was completed about 1716, was a conical masonry tower, and its cost, which is interesting as being set out to the uttermost farthing--£2,285 17s. 8½d.--betrays the scrupulous commercial integrity of the first financiers of the United States. The light was maintained by the levy of a due of one penny per ton on all incoming and outgoing vessels, except those engaged in coastal traffic, and was collected by the same authority which subsequently got into trouble in the endeavour to collect the tax on tea. This pioneer light is still in service, although in 1783 it was rebuilt. The light, of the second order, is 102 feet above mean high-water, and gives a white flash every thirty seconds, which is visible from a distance of sixteen miles; the fog-signal is a first-class siren, giving a blast of five seconds, followed by silence for ten seconds, with a succeeding blast of five seconds and silence for forty seconds.