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120 of virgin soil and forest still unoccupied, and there are also large areas that have been cultivated for many years, and from which settlement is now prohibited; but these will be again available when the various terms of reservation have expired."

"Is there no danger, through the natural increase, of Neuroomia becoming overpopulated?" I asked.

"As far as we can learn," was the answer, "Neuroomia has never been overpopulated, and it certainly is not at the present time; nor can we see any signs of that being the case in the future, however remote."

I pointed out that in other parts of the world the population had actually doubled itself in twenty-five years; that this might not be wholly attributable to the natural increase,—nevertheless, that increase was great; that islands had become overpopulated, and what was true of islands might in a measure prove true of continents.

He said that according to the general nature of things, if there were a large and constant annual increase of births over deaths, any insular tract of land, particularly without any outlet for its people, must eventually become overpopulated. In Neuroomia, however, nothwithstanding the favourable conditions under which the people existed, the