170 



SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF MAXIMAL! A. 



103. — Sloth : mode of progression. 



ligaments, it can reach to a distant branch, and there fix 

 itself with facility, or, while clinging to one branch, can 

 draw towards itself another loaded with buds, fruits, or 

 leaves, which offer a grateful repast. (Fig. 104.) Rigid 

 as its paw is, it can use it as a hand, and with great 

 address convey food to its mouth. 



Unfitted then for the ground, along which he can only 

 drag himself by applying the claws of the fore-feet to 

 any rough projection within reach, the sloth is emi- 

 nently qualified for the branches of the forest, and that 

 rather for their upper than their under surface ; clinging 

 to them, he rests and travels suspended, yet in perfect 

 security ; here his awkwardness disappears, and he tra- 

 verses the branches or passes from tree to tree in the 

 dense forest with considerable celerity, either in quest of 

 food or in order to escape his enemies. Stedman, in his 

 * History of Surinam,' has an engraving of a sloth in this 

 position, which we have copied as illustrating its singular 

 mode of progression. (Fig. 105.) But the arms of the 

 sloth are also his weapons of defence, and weapons of no 

 little force : when attacked on the ground, he throws 

 himself on his back, fixes his claws on his adversary, and 

 grasps him with enormous power 5 in this manner he has 



