The Russell Channel, leading to St. Peter Port from the north, is exceedingly dangerous, the sea being littered with granite rocks both submerged and exposed, of which the Grande Braye, Barsier, and Platte Fougère, form the outer rampart. Readers of Victor Hugo may gather some realistic idea of the perilous nature of these waters by perusing “The Toilers of the Sea,” in which these rocks figure very prominently, particularly the Platte Fougère. The menace of this corner of the channel is accentuated by the velocity of the tidal currents which swing and swirl round the reefs, together with the extreme range of the tides, which averages about 30 feet. Formerly, in thick weather, vessels found it almost impossible to pick up the Russell, and often a captain, by the rip and crash of metal being torn, to his dismay learned that he had swung too far to the westward. [Illustration: SETTING THE COMPRESSED-AIR RESERVOIR AT FORT DOYLE. The Platte Fougère automatic light is supplemented by a land station on the island of Guernsey a mile away.] The companies engaged in this traffic repeatedly petitioned the authorities to mark the entrance to the strait by some adequate means. A light was not required so keenly as a sound-signal, because in clear weather navigation was tolerably safe. The proposal was discussed time after time, but no solution appeared to be forthcoming. To erect a lighthouse on the outer fringe of the barrier would have entailed prodigious expenditure, which the island authorities could ill afford, even if such a scheme were practicable. The question was taken up boldly by General Campbell during his occupation of the post of Governor-General of the Island of Guernsey, and he pressed forward the scheme vigorously in a resolute determination to bring about a diminution in the number of maritime disasters at this point. He approached Messrs. David and Charles Stevenson, who had considerable experience of similar conditions around the Scottish coasts, and they, after an elaborate survey of the site, recommended the erection of a light and fog-signal station upon the Platte Fougère, which should be controlled from the land a mile distant. They agreed that the erection of a tower similar to those generally planted on sea-rocks would be a formidable undertaking and enormously expensive, owing to the conditions prevailing, but the station they suggested was quite practicable, and would serve the purposes equally well.