s. It is
altogether a new gamut for painters of architecture or of ruins; and I
shall send them to Luebeck by the next train. I recommend to their notice
also, very near the Holstenthor, on the left bank of the Trave, five or
six crimson houses, shouldering each other for mutual support, bulging
out in front, pierced with six or seven stories of windows, with
denticulated gables, the deep red reflection of them trailing in the
water, like some high-colored apron which a servant-maid is washing.
What a picture Van den Heyden would have made of this!

Following the quay, along which runs a railway, where freight-trains
were constantly passing, I enjoyed many amusing and varied scenes. On
the other side of the Trave were to be seen, amid houses and clumps of
trees, vessels in various stages of building. Here, a skeleton with
ribs of wood, like the carcass of some stranded whale; there, a hull,
clad with its planking near which smokes the calker's cauldron, emitting
light yellowish clouds. Everywhere prevails a cheerful stir of busy
life. Carpenters are planing and hammering, porters are rolling casks,
sailors are scrubbing the decks of vessels, or getting the sails half
way up to dry them in the sun. A barque just arriving comes alongside
the quay, the other vessels making room for her to pass. The little
steamboats are getting up steam or letting it off; and when you turn
toward the city, through the rigging of the vessels, you see the
church-towers, which incline gracefully, like the masts of clippers.

[Footnote A: From "A Winter in Russia." By arrangement with, and by
permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, 1874.]

[Footnote B: The decline of Luebeck dates from the first quarter of the
sixteenth century and was chiefly due to the discovery of America and
the consequent diversion of commerce to new directions. Other
misfortunes came with the Thirty Years' War. As early as 1425, one of
the constant sources of Luebeck's wealth had begun to fail her--the
herring, which was found to be deserting Baltic waters. The discovery by
the Portuguese of a route to India by the Cape of Good Hope was another
cause of Luebeck's decline.]

HELIGOLAND[A]

BY WILLIAM GEORGE BLACK

In Heligoland itself there are few trees, no running water, no romantic
ruins, but an extraordinary width of sea-view, seen as from the deck of
a gigantic ship; and yet the island is so small that one can look around
it all, and