The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-01 00:00:00

The Island of Heligoland.

Mr. Frank Buckland writes as follows in Land
and {Voter :—" By the kindness of the Governor
of Heligoland, the lion. Lieut. Col. H. Fitzliardinge
Maxse, I have received a very interesting curiosity.
It is the barrel of a soldier's musket, fished up
by an oyster-dredging boat near this little island.
The Governor thinks that it must have been lying
at the bottom of the sea since the time of our 1
French war. The musket has bceu broken in
half ; one piece is 19k inches long, the other 1G
inches. The wood portion still remains perfect,
only stained with oxide of iron from the rust of the
barrel. Around the greater portion of this musket
a firm hard concrete has formed, and gives a
famous illustration how common sea-shingle, when
in contact with iron at the bottom of the sea, will
form a 'pudding-stone,' almost harder than any
cement we know of. I think this fact may be use-
ful to engineers in building breakwaters, &c. Around
the lower end of the musket was a great lump of the
natural concrete, but wishing to make out the
il-
form
of the lock, and with great difficulty, and the spo
ing of many tools, I managed to chisel off most of
the concrete, taking as a guide an old Waterloo
musket, so as to k
make out the anatomy of this
pseudo-fossil lock. found, however,
was entirely absent, uor could I find any traces of
the powder-pan or other parts of the machinery.
I was also anxious to ascertain if the musket
was still loaded, but the barrel being full of con-
crete I could not pass down a ramrod, nor can I
well cut into the iron. Of course it is impossible
to say with accuracy how long the musket has been
under water. 118 d, however, that on the conclusion
of the peace in 14 England retained possession of
the island. I do not know when there was any fight-
ing there. Will any of our own correspondents kindly
give us information on this point ? In his letter to
me the Governor gives the following interesting
' particulars relative to the sea-fishery I am glad
to see that Land and Water has taken up the deep-
sea fishery. My island has now become thehat fidequarters of a large fleet of Hull cutters—
in 30 to 50 what
boats they are! They generally come
in number on Saturday nights. They will be here,
probably about 100 of them, all the summer,
and,
like last year, ice is brought out to them from Eng-
land once a week. They make, or made last year,
tremendous hauls of cod, sole, turbots, &c.,
the latter
particularly fine. I heard, however, lately that they
are now obliged to„ o as far as the.eoast_ of Jutland.
It is impossible to overrate the position of this island
as of great importance to our inercants‘ilee.ani;ll
case
einogf
interests, and as au outpost for co ,
Weser. The Prussians would give their eyes
war, commanding as it does the Elder,. Elbfeo,raintd;
but though our official langietri
isnecessarily German, the I 0
tel,aoatsscahreeeal ditto,coin-
(unwritten).
rhaveitt theiren).
'They
1)01 emt epl
lye distinctcomplete
distinct
would scout the idea of being annexed to Prussia.'
gbaraagncah
The Governor has also kindly sent me some speci-
mens of oysters from Heligoland. I was much sur-
prised with their appearance ; the shell is very white,
and by no means so heavy as that of ordinary deep-
sea oysters. On opening them I was much sur-
ised at their being so plump and white, as, living
pr
in the deep sea, it is contrary to the rule that they
should be pluinp. Upon reflection I think I find
the reason of this. They must have been dredged
up from some portion of the sea coast to the
eastward of the island, and the bed from whence
they come could not, I think, be far away from the
estuary of the Elbe. This is one of the largest
rivers in Germany, being about 710 miles long, and
has an estuary of several miles in width. The tor-
rent of water coming down such a river as this would
extend its influence very far out to sea, and thus the
oysters over a large extent of sea-bottom, even
though at a considerable distance from the land,
would assume the characteristics, not of deep-sea,
but of estuary oysters, which live in water more or
less diluted with fresh springs from the land. May
not this fact be turned to account by the inhabitants
of Heligoland ?"

COURSING.
COURSING MEETINGS TO COME.
SEPTE3IBER.
Judge. Days of Running
DraPlPton: Cumberland . .... . Mr. Witrvc
OCTOBER~
Ancaster and Willoughby,
LaitiOglattiresisuliumusiti hir• sPagorci Imo 1 2

Name.