156 FORMATION OF THE SLOTH. 



wild animals which he has never seen except in a 

 captive state. 



Waterton kept a Sloth in his room for several 

 months ; he often carried him into the open air, and 

 then put him down in order to watch his move- 

 ments. If the ground was rough, he would pull 

 himself forward, by means of his hind-legs, at a 

 tolerable pace, and always towards the nearest tree ; 

 if smooth and well-trodden, he seemed embarrassed, 

 and would sigh so heavily, and look so weary, that 

 one might almost fancy him to be in pain. But 

 his favourite resort was the back of a chair ; thither 

 he would climb and remain contentedly for hours, 

 resting on the upper bar, and uttering occasionally 

 a low and inward sound, to invite his master to 

 take notice of him. 



This singular quadruped lives entirely, when in a 

 wild state, on the branches of trees, and never leaves 

 them, except by constraint or accident. The eagle 

 soars on high, and inhabits the craggy rock; the 

 rabbit forms a burrow, wherein to hide himself; 

 reptiles frequent marshy places; and the monkey 

 and the squirrel seek for the shelter of the woods. 

 Each may change his relative situation without 

 much inconvenience, but the Sloth is formed, not to 

 live like his neighbours of the forest, on waving 

 branches, but under them. He moves suspended 

 from the bough to which he clings, and he sleeps 

 suspended from it. Hence it is necessary that his 

 construction should be widely different from that of 

 every other quadruped. His strange conformation 

 is, therefore, at once accounted for ; and instead of 

 leading a painful and melancholy life, he possesses as 



