The Heligoland lighthouse is a very powerful one, and
every single one of these stuffed birds had committed suicide
against the thick glass of the lantern. The lighthouse keepers
told me that during the migratory periods, they sometimes found as
many as a hundred dead birds on the external gallery of the light
in the morning, all of whom had killed themselves against the
light.
From 1830 to 1871 there were public gaming-tables in Heligoland,
and the Concessionaire paid such a high price for his permit that
the colonial finances were in the most flourishing condition. In
1871, Downing Street stopped this, with disastrous effect on the
island budget. Fortunately, Germans took to coming over in vast
numbers for the excellent sea-bathing, and so money began to flow
in again. The place attracted them with its glorious sea air; it
had all the advantages of a ship, without the ship's motion.
I paid a second visit to Heligoland three years later, when I was
Attache at our Berlin Embassy. Sir Fitzhardinge Maxse, the uncle
of Mr. Leo Maxse of the National Review, was Governor then.
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