genuine and fresh as imported. There are
neither taxes, duties, nor custom-house officers.
For anti-ichthyophagous persons, who
cannot eat fish from morning till night,
the steamers from Hamburg bring plenty
of meat, besides fruit and first-class
vegetables. The terrestrial fauna of Heligoland
is limited, and would not require the zeal
of a Cuvier to describe it. It contains cocks
and hens, domestic rabbits, pigs, dogs, cats,
sheep, mice, fleas, flies, gnats, earthworms,
beetles, sparrows, and a few other well-
known species, of equal interest to the scientific
world. It generally has one cow ; but
only during the fashionable season ; for, at the
approach of winter, it is made into beef, and a
new one imported next year. But its oceanic
treasures are numberless. If you wish for a
good field-day amongst the real game of
Heligoland, put on your diving-dress, your bull's-
eyed helmet, and your leaden-soled shoes :
enter the waves ; make your serving-men
follow you overhead to ply the forcing air-
pump with brawny arms ; and you shall see,
if you do not perform, wonders.

Yes; come to Heligoland, for a change
in the beaten routine of watering-places. I
shall probably be strolling on the Unterland
when you land. If I like not your
looks, I will obstinately speak nothing but
German in your presence. And in this
I shall be justified by the authorities;
for, although the natives have a tongue of
their own — which has some analogy with that
of the North Frieslanders — German is the
only language employed in the schools and
for divine service. If I like your looks, I
will introduce myself as the writer of this
contribution, and will proceed at once to
initiate you into life in Heligoland. I shall
knock you up very early in the morning — at
an hour, in short, only known at home to your
housemaid and milkman. You spring out of
bed. You need not be a minute dressing; and
it will not matter even if you dress in your
sleep; for the delicious, the unrivalled air, will
waken you the instant you get into it. Your
lodging will be on the Oberland, and you
make at once for the High Street of Heligoland
—the Stairs. As the native flirtations
chiefly take place on the landings, we shall
doubtless disturb, as we pass down, a pretty
little scene of tenderness between a sea-and-
sun-browned youth, and a pretty little fair-
haired Heligolandess. On the strand we find
one of the pilot-boats ready to take us over
to Sandy Island.

As to the passage, you need not be under
the slightest apprehension. It is performed
in large sloops or yawls, capable of
carrying thirty passengers at least, and which
are placed under the entire superintendence
of select pilots, and which are no
other than the famous Heligoland salvage-
boats, well-known throughout the North
Sea, for rendering assistance to trading-
vessels in distress, even in the midst of
the most violent storms, and which can be
rowed when a sail dare not show itself. An
officer of the company of pilots is always
present, both at the embarcation and
disembarcation ; he receives the passage-money
which is fixed at four schillings (four
pence) each person. In fine weather we are
over in ten minutes ; in rough, it may
take four times ten ; but it is only late in the
season that such long transits take place. Of
course it shall be a fine day when we go ;
and, looking over the gunwale as it cuts the
water into streaming ripples along the sides
of the boat, you feel that there is no word
to express the wondrous clearness of that
transparent sea. Every rock, every pebble,
every zoophyte, every waving sea-plant,
down, down, down, in the lowermost deep,
is seen as distinctly as if the keel could
touch it. Your boat stops gently, for
it has run its prow into the soft, glistening
edge of Sandy Island. Take care!  That
end of the beech is reserved exclusively for
ladies. The gentlemen's bathing-machines
are at the opposite extremity.

You have had your plunge, and now
for breakfast. What? Here? Certainly.
You must have your breakfast on the spot,
and it will be unparalleled. I defy you to
know the true definition of that ill-understood
word, until you have breakfasted after a sea-
bath on Sandy Island. That pavilion, with
windows all round within, and the thick belt of
seats and tables without, opposite to the place
where you land, and at an equal distance
from the bathing-machines of the ladies and
gentlemen, is the refectory. What will you
have to eat ? Some gorgeous scarlet lobster,
—of which a Heligoland appetite seems able
to eat any quantity with impunity; the most
slippery of slippery oysters; eggs in all forms,
from the domestic boiled, or the smooth-faced
poached, to the luscious rumbled. What will
you drink? The bottles of porter and beer,
the cups of tea, coffee, chocolate, despatched
in and around this busy pavilion, are not
to be counted any more than the golden
sands that lie before you. Everything is
excellent, and the serving-girls are quick and
clever, with now and then quite an original
among them, who assists your digestion with
jokes and quaint remarks. The cooking
is done in a kind of gipsy-hut behind the
pavilion; and, if you become a great favourite
with your serving-maiden, you will be ad-
mitted into the arcana of this queer little
cooking-camp, and will get your breakfast
hot from the stove,—no bad thing if the
morning be a little cold. But then you lose
the novel sensation of breakfasting in the
company of a bevy of mermaids. The ladies,
after bathing, issue forth from their machines
with their long hair floating down gracefully
over their shoulders, to dry in the sun.
They leave their looking-glasses at home, and
do not use them until they arrive there.

After breakfast comes the slow meditative