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CONFIDENTIAL.

2

HELIGOLAND.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

LITLTIC.O.

885

2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON |

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

Dear Sir,

Mr. G. M. Stephen to Mr. Merivale.

29, Western Villas, Blomfield Road,

December 25, 1854.

AS there are some points connected with Heligoland which were not adverted to in our interview of Friday last, I trust you will pardon me for sending the accompanying notes and sketches, which I have prepared in the hope that they may afford practical information on the heads referred to therein.

If my thorough acquaintance and influence with the inhabitants (vide their addresses to me) can in any manner be made available to Her Majesty's Govern- ment, I beg to place my gratuitous services at your command.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

Notes on Heligoland.

GEO. M. STEPHEN.

THIE following Notes are the result of the author's observations during a residence of four years (1841 to 1845) on that island, when holding the office of Secretary to the present Governor, Sir J. Hindmarsh. A visit made during the autumn of this year enables him to confirm their general accuracy.

Accompanying this Paper is an isometrical drawing, which the author has just prepared from sketches made by him on the spot, and which, with two of those original sketches (one showing the South or Battery Point, as taken from the shore immediately below), he transmits, as conveying a more vivid and accurate impression of the singular features of that island. "They will also serve to elucidate some of the Notes.

Heligoland is distant from Cuxhaven, at the mouth of the Elbe, about thirty: Geographical posi. five English miles, and about the same distance from the Rivers Weser and tion. Eider. It lies, therefore, in the track of all vessels proceeding to Hainburgh and Bremen, which invariably "sight" the island, and for which reason its position is so important to those great commercial cities that, when the island belonged to the Crown of Denmark, the Senate of Hamburgh defrayed the expenses of the lighthouse.

Moreover, during the operations of the celebrated "Berlin Decrees" in the last war, Heligoland was made a depot for English merchandize, which was thence smuggled over to the Continent. At the same time, English cruizers, when employed in the North Sea, used the anchorage as a shelter from its storms.

Heligoland is in shape an acute-angled triangle; its greatest length (about Geological features. north and south) being one mile, and its greatest breadth (east and west) a third of a mile. It is a high rock of the "old red sandstone" formation (constantly breaking away by exposure to the atmosphere, though solid under water), having everywhere perpendicular sides, like walls built in the sea. But to the south- east there is a small slip of low land or shore, still preserved from the encroach- ments of the sea. on which the Lower Town" is built. Nowhere else is there

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