Machinery and the invention of wings had superseded the horse as a beast of burden; and the dog was no longer wanted either for protection or the chase, as it had been when the ancestors of the Vril-ya feared the aggressions of their own kind, or hunted the lesser animals for food.

Indeed, however, so far as the horse was concerned, this region was so rocky that a horse could have been, there, of little use either for pastime or burden.

The only creature they use for the latter purpose is a kind of large goat which is much employed on farms.

The nature of the surrounding soil in these districts may be said to have first suggested the invention of wings and air-boats.

The largeness of space in proportion to the space occupied by the city, was occasioned by the custom of surrounding every house with a separate garden.