Heligoland

or Helgoland, a small island in the North Sea, belonging to the province of Schleswig-Holstein. It is only a mile in length. Its population is about 2,000. It was taken from Denmark by Great Britain in 1807. Aside from lobster fishing the island has little value, except as a military station. Germany coveted it as commanding the entrance to the new Kiel Canal. Great Britain ceded the island to Germany in 1890. The island is crumbling away rapidly beneath the blows of the German Ocean. A cliff on which a portion of a new German wall is rising became undermined in 1905 and fell carrying the wall with it.