The island had only been ceded to us in 1814, and we handed it
over to Germany in 1890, so our tenure was too brief for us to
have struck root deeply into the soil. Heligoland was a splendid
recruiting ground for the Royal Navy, for the islanders were a
hardy race of seafarers, and made ideal material for bluejackets.
There was not a horse or cow on the island, ewes supplying all the
milk. As sheep's milk has an unappetising green tinge about it, it
took a day or two to get used to this unfamiliar-looking fluid.
There being no fresh water on Heligoland, the rain water from the
roofs was all caught and stored in tanks. On that rainswept rock I
cannot conceive it likely that the water supply would ever fail.
Some-how the idea was prevalent in England that Heligoland was
undermined by rabbits. There was not one single rabbit on the
island, for even rabbits find it hard to burrow into solid rock.
Professor Gatke's books on the migrations of birds are well known.
Heligoland lies in the track of migrating birds, and Dr. Gatke had
established himself there for some years to observe them, and
there was a really wonderful ornithological museum close to the
lighthouse.
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