84 THE SLOTH. 



teeth, they cannot seize any prey, nor feed upon flesh, nor 

 even upon vegetable food. Reduced to live on leaves and 

 wild fruits, they take up a long time in crawling to a tree, 

 and are still longer in climbing up to the branches. Dur- 

 ing this slow and painful labor, which sometimes lasts 

 many days, they are obliged to support the most pressing 

 hunger ; and when, at length, one of them has accom- 

 plished its end, it fastens itself to the tree, crawls from 

 branch to branch, and, by degrees, strips the whole tree 

 of its foliage. In this manner it remains several weeks, 

 without moistening its dry food with any liquid ; and when 

 it has consumed the store, and the tree is entirely naked, 

 yet unable to descend, it continues on till hunger presses, 

 and that becoming more powerful than the fear of danger 

 or death, it drops like a shapeless, heavy mass, to the 

 ground, without being capable of exerting any effort to 

 break the violence of its fall. 



On the ground, these animals are exposed to all their 

 enemies ; arid, as their flesh is not absolutely bad, they are 

 killed by men and beasts of prey. They seem to multiply 

 but little ; or, if they produce very often, it is only a small 

 number, as they are furnished but with two teats. Every 

 thing concurs, therefore, to their destruction, and the spe- 

 cies supports itself with great difficulty. It is true, that, 

 although they are slow, heavy, and almost incapable of 

 motion, yet they are hardy, strong, and can abstain a long 

 time from food : covered also with a thick and coarse fur, 

 and unable scarcely to move, they waste but little, and 

 fatten by rest, however poor and dry their food is. Al- 

 though they have neither horns on their heads, nor hoofs 

 to their feet, nor incisive teeth in the lower jaw, they are, 

 notwithstanding, among the number of ruminating animals, 

 and have, like them, four stomachs ; so that they, conse- 

 quently, can compensate for the quality of their food by the 

 quantity they take at a time ; and what is still more sin- 

 gular, is, that instead of having, like other ruminating ani- 



