ROUTES 35 



sky ? Indeed he again and again declares that 

 migration passes unseen yet calculates the numbers 

 observed on the darkest nights ; the illumination 

 of the lighthouse could not be sufficient to enable 

 him to even guess at the numbers he mentions. 

 After stating that " the whole vault of heaven was 

 literally filled to a height of several thousand feet 

 with these visitors from the regions of the far North/' 

 and that a certain east to west passage extended 

 from the Faroes to Hanover, he concludes that 

 " the view that migrants follow the direction of 

 ocean coasts, the drainage areas of rivers, or de- 

 pressions of valleys as fixed routes of migration can 

 hardly be maintained/' 



As emphatically he maintains that most observ- 

 able migration over Heligoland is due east to west 

 or west to east, though the birdstuffer Aeuckens, 

 who supplied him with much of his information, 

 told Seebohm that it was north-east in spring and 

 south-west in autumn (45). Is it not perfectly 

 evident that the geographical position of Heligoland 

 makes it a convenient resting place for large numbers 

 of migrants, for it is certainly true that large 

 numbers are observed there, which pass southward 

 and westward along the Baltic, crossing Schleswig- 

 Holstein and the mouth of the Elbe, or coast south 

 along Denmark, and cross the Elbe diagonally, 

 en route for the Dutch and French coasts and 



