As there is no harbor,
passengers reach the shore in large boats, and get their first glimpse
of the hardy, sun-browned natives in the boatmen who, with bright
jackets and hats of every picturesque curve that straw is capable of,
pull the boat quickly to the steps of the little pier. Crowds of
visitors line the way, but one gets quickly through, and in a few
minutes returns either to familiar quarters in the Oberland, or finds an
equally clean and moderate home among the lodging-house keepers or
seamen. The season is a very short one, only ten weeks out of fifty-two,
but the prices are moderate and the comfort unchallengeable....
Heligoland is only one mile long from pier to Nordkap, and a quarter of
a mile wide at its widest--in all it is three-quarters of a square mile
in size. There are no horses or carts in Heligoland--only six cows, kept
always in darkness, and a few sheep and goats tethered on the Oberland.
The streets are very narrow, but very clean, and the constant
repetition in houses and scarves and flags of the national colors gives
Heligoland a gay aspect; for the national colors are anything but dull.
Green land, red rocks, white strand--nothing could be better descriptive
of the island than these colors. They are easily brought out in domestic
architecture, for with a whitewashed cottage and a red-tiled roof the
Heligolander has only to give his door and window-shutters a coat of
bright green paint, and there are the colors of Heligoland.
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