218 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



a pretty good pace ; and he invariably immediately shaped 

 his course towards the nearest tree. But if I put him upon 

 a smooth and well-trodden part of the road, he appeared 

 to be in trouble and distress : his favourite abode was 

 the back of a chair : and after getting all his ]egs in a 

 line upon the topmost part of it, he would hang there 

 for hours together, and often with a low and inward 

 cry, would seem to invite me to take notice of him. 



The sloth, in its wild state, spends its whole life in trees, 

 and never leaves them but through force or by accident. 

 An all-ruling Providence has ordered man to tread on the 

 surface of the earth, the eagle to soar in the expanse of 

 the skies, and the monkey and squirrel to inhabit the 

 trees : still these may change their relative situations 

 without feeling much inconvenience : but the sloth is 

 doomed to spend his whole life in the trees ; and, what is 

 more extraordinary, not upon the branches, like the squirrel 

 and the monkey, but under them. He moves suspended 

 from the branch, he rests suspended from it, and he sleeps 

 suspended from it. To enable him to do this, he must 

 have a very different formation from that of any other 

 known quadruped. 



Hence his seemingly bungled conformation is at once 

 accounted for ; and in lieu of the sloth leading a painful 

 life and entailing a melancholy and miserable existence 

 on its progeny, it is but fair to surmise that it just enjoys 

 life as much as any other animal, and that its extra- 

 ordinary formation and singular habits are but further 

 proofs to engage us to admire the wonderful works of 

 Omnipotence. 



It must be observed, that the sloth does not hang head- 

 downwards like the vampire. AVhen asleep, he supports 

 himself from a branch parallel to the earth. He first seizes 

 the branch with one arm, and then with the other ; and 



