assage in the little steamer which runs from Hamburg, and
arrived at my destination at 10 P. M.. In the dim light of the moon and
stars the island bore a fantastic resemblance to the Monitor, a little
magnified; the lights of the village answering to those of the hull, and
the lighthouse to the lantern at the mast-head. The island presents this
appearance only at a distance and in a doubtful light. When I walked
over it the next morning I found that it was composed of a sand-bank
lying under a red cliff. The sand-bank was covered with houses, which
were divided by three or four streets; these were paved with wooden
boards. Every house was a shop, an inn, or a lodging-house. The cliff is
accessible on one side only, and is ascended by means of sinuous wooden
staircases. When the summit is reached, one stands upon the real island,
for the sand-bank below is an accident and an intruder. Heligoland
proper may be described as a precipice-plateau, containing a small
cluster of houses, a lighthouse, various pole-nets, springes, and other
contrivances for catching woodcocks in their migratory flights, and a
few miniature potato and corn fields. The extent of this plateau is not
quite equal to that of Hyde Park. As soon as I had made this discovery I
felt an intense compassion for all persons of the Teutonic race to whom
sea-bathing once a year happens to be indispensable. However, if dull,
it must at least be economical, I thought; but this illusion was
dispelled when I found that there was a roulette-table in the dingy
little Conversations-Haus, and when my landlord handed me in a bill
which would not have disgraced any hotel in Bond Street or the Fifth
Avenue.

How on earth, thought I, can these poor deluded creatures pass their
time? They get up at some absurd hour in the morning; they sail to a
neighboring sand-bank where they bathe and then take coffee in a
whitewashed pavilion; they return to breakfast, and then--what can they
do? There is nowhere to walk; there is nothing to read; and in the
height of the season there must be a scarcity of elbow-room. Although
every house offers accommodation to visitors, it has not unfrequently
happened that persons have been obliged to sleep on board the steamers
which brought them, and to return to the main-land. Imagine an island
being full, like an omnibus!

Then a thought came upon me which wrung my heart. _The Governor!_ How
could this unfortunate man exist? With a precipice on o