Page:Neuroomia.djvu/131

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I ENJOY A PROLONGED HOLIDAY.
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large room, where several maps of Neuroomia hung upon the walls; there were also many diagrams, casts, and instruments of different kinds. He informed me this was the room used for consultations with Yondozi when he came to the palace.

I felt interested, examined the scale of one of the maps, and found that Neuroomia was much larger than Australia. I then made inquiries about the number of states or divisions, population, large cities, etc.

He said that for administrative purposes Neuroomia was at present divided into fifteen states, and that, according to the last census, the population of the whole territory was about thirty millions; that I had already seen the largest city, Tehana, which contained about a million inhabitants, but that no other city, except Atazatlan, contained half that number; that, according to their laws of settlement, it was undesirable that the population of any city should exceed one million.

"How did they check the increase?"

"By marking out and building fresh cities," was the reply.

"Then you have fresh territory still available for settlement?" I interjected.

"Yes," was the answer. "There are large tracts