saunter along the downs. You may find a
tempting sunny hole in these downs, where
you may lie down and take a siesta, sung
to sleep by the listless and monotonous
"Rauschen" of the waves on the shore.
Rauschen is the word which conveys the
sound so exactly, that I cannot prevail on
myself to use any other ; and besides, I
suppose the waves have a right to express
themselves in German on our tight little island,
although the Union Jack does spread its
colours above it. After your sandy lounge,
you take a ramble on the side of the downs,
among pavilions and bathers ; and here,
instead of yellow sands, you find pebbles of
every hue and shape; some exceedingly
beautiful, and worthy of adorning the fairest wrist,
after a little cutting and polishing. Walk to
the extreme end of this little promontory, where
waves curl round you on every side.  Do
not look behind, and you will imagine yourself
standing alone in the ocean, where no
land is to be seen, — nothing but the green
sheet spread out on all sides, with here and
there shifting dots of white-crested waves.
But it is time to return to the rock,
where we change our toilet, and amuse
ourselves till dinner, at three o'clock. The
table d'hôte is the Stadt London,
on the Oberland ; and here we are sure to
meet our mermaid friends, all nicely dried
and combed, who make dinner a most
cheerful affair. After dinner, we go to a
pavilion on the Unterland for a cup of coffee,
and after that, comes the promenade along
Kartoffel or Potato Walk, to the end of
the rock, where everybody sits till sunset.
This is the grand sight of our little island,
and worth walking a mile or two to see, if
we could walk that distance in Heligoland.
But do not imagine that we go to bed with
the sun. We no sooner see him safely
tucked up in his gorgeous sheet of sea, than
we bethink ourselves of the pleasant
Conversations-haus down below in a sheltered nook,
where balls take place several times a-week :
the native girls, with scarlet petticoats
broadly edged with yellow, dancing among
the ladies. On the nights when there are no
balls, there is conversation. There are also a
billiard-room and a rouge-et-noir table. Here
all the visitors meet every evening, and here
they find the newspapers, which arrive in the
afternoon with the Hamburg steamboat. Plans
are discussed for the amusement of the visitors,
because you must know there is a Pleasure
Committee on our solitary little isle. This
committee is composed of gentlemen. There
is a treasurer, who receives subscriptions
from all who wish to join, and then the
committee discuss how they can best lay out the
money.

Sometimes in the dark nights, when there
is no moon, the whole company set off in
boats for a tour round the island ; each person
torch in hand, to explore the dark, mysterious
caverns, in some of which the waves
roar like thunder, or likewild beasts getting
at their prey. This torchlight tour has a
magical effect; and, if you have once made it,
you are not likely ever to forget it. Fishing
parties are also formed— lobster-fishing being
in especial vogue. The finest turbot you
could buy for money, could never pretend to
taste like those delicious amateur fish caught
on your own hook in the North Sea. What
a supper they make, with the invariable
Heligoland accompaniment of a smoking
pyramid of potatoes! the native island
vegetable. Potatoes and the sheep are the great
institutions on Heligoland; the latter
performing the duties usually performed by
the cow in other countries. Indeed, one of
the most amusing features in your evening
promenade along Kartoffel Allée is the number
of red petticoats with yellow hems,
employed in milking the patient little sheep;
which afterwards gets its reward of cabbages
and other green stuff.

Every profession is represented (except, we
are happy to believe, the law), in Heligoland:—
Music by a German band and the mermaids,
many of whom are syrens also; and painting
by Herr Gaetke — of course, a marine-painter.
He came to Heligoland about
eighteen years ago, determined to win the
secrets from the sea, where it was, as it were,
at home, and without the restraint of a coast.
He went to spend a summer, and he did not
leave the island for more than sixteen years.
His pictures of Heligoland in all kinds of
weathers, his ships in distress, and his wrecks
ashore, breathe life. Look round his atelier
on the Falm or Esplanade, and you see that
Gaetke is no common painter, a good ornithologist,
and a capital shot. All those birds
on his shelves, constituting every variety of
feathered biped that takes its wing across
the island, were shot, and stuffed by himself.
He therefore gives to his adopted little
country a museum, to complete its claim
to art and science. Try to make his
acquaintance : you will find him an agreeable
companion, and the best cicerone on the
island.

Finally—if you have a mind to feast
on fish; to breathe pure air. at least once
in your life; to drink untaxed brandy,
wine, and gin; to smoke un-ac-customed
tobacco; to get on with your German; to
realise, though not completely, Johnson's
definition of a ship, — a prison, without
the chance of being drowned; to form
an attachment which shall last for life, or
an aversion which shall grow bitterer and
bitterer until you and its object can only
quit the island in different steamers: to get
a fierce, shark-like appetite; to rise with the
lark (if there were one) ; to go to bed with
the hens; and, above all, to behold me, the
gifted scribe, in bodily presence — remember
that the Heligoland season begins in June
and ends in September; make hay, or way,
while the sun shines, and swell our list of