182 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



forests. The trade-wind generally sets in about 

 ten o'clock in the morning, and thus the sloth 

 may set off after breakfast, and get a considerable 

 way before dinner. He travels at a good round 

 pace; and were you to see him pass from tree to 

 tree, as I have done, you would never think of call- 

 ing him a sloth. 



Thus, it would appear that the different his- 

 tories we have of this quadruped are erroneous 

 on two accounts: first, that the writers of them, 

 deterred by difficulties and local annoyances, have 

 not paid sufficient attention to him in his native 

 haunts; and secondly, they have described him 

 in a situation in which he was never intended by 

 nature to cut a figure; I mean on the ground. 

 The sloth is as much at a loss to proceed on his 

 journey upon a smooth and level floor, as a man 

 would be who had to walk a mile in stilts upon a 

 line of feather beds. 



One day, as we were crossing the Essequibo, I 

 saw a large two-toed sloth on the ground upon the 

 bank ; how he had got there nobody could tell : 

 the Indian said he had never surprised a sloth 

 in such a situation before : he would hardly have 

 come there to drink, for both above and below the 

 place, the branches of the trees touched the water, 

 and afforded him an easy and safe access to it. 

 Be this as it may, though the trees were not above 

 twenty yards from him, he could not make his way 

 through the sand in time enough to escape before 

 we landed. As soon as we got up to him he threw 

 himself upon his back, and defended himself in 

 gallant style with his fore-legs. ''Come, poor 

 fellow," said I to him, "if thou hast got into a 



