330 THE HARMONIES OF NATUKE. 



hours of awkward toil, it might at first sight be taken for the 

 most wretched and ill-formed of beings a flaw among the 

 general beauty of the Creator's works. But this hasty judg- 

 ment would soon be retracted on viewing it in the trees, the 

 real seat of its existence, where it moves and rests and sleeps, 

 suspended from the boughs ; for then it would at once become 

 apparent that these strong, muscular, and preposterously long 

 forefeet are as well adapted for this peculiar mode of life as 

 the limbs of the springing kangaroo, the burrowing mole, the 

 swimming seal, or the flying bat, for their various spheres of 

 action. When the sloth wanders, it first stretches out one of 

 its forepaws as far as possible, and then the other ; drawing for- 

 wards at the same time its short hind-feet, which are armed 

 with similar strong crooked claws, and from the inverted posi- 

 tion of their soles have a power of grasping a branch which no 

 other mammal possesses. Thus, without any painful exertion 

 whatever, it creeps or climbs along from branch to branch, 

 and from tree to tree ; nor does it ever, in the vast primeval 

 forests where it dwells, require to set its foot on the ground ; so 

 that, although the worst walker among all the terrestrial quad- 

 rupeds, it has as little reason to complain of this deficiency as 

 the whale or the dolphin of not being able to bound over the 

 plain, or to roam through the forest. The muscular power of 

 the sloth's forearm is so great that the animal can remain 

 suspended for hours together without moving its position, 

 expressing all the time its satisfaction by a kind of purring, 

 which is surely no sign of misery. 



The monkeys are also most admirable climbers but indifferent 

 walkers, though in a less degree than the sloth. Both their 

 hind and fore-feet are shaped as hands, generally with a thumb 

 opposed to the other fingers and toes in the feet as well as in 

 the hands, by which peculiarity they are enabled to grasp ob- 

 jects both with their anterior and their posterior extremities. 

 The arms are generally longer and stronger than the legs, and 

 the body slender and comparatively light a structure which, 

 though ill-suited for pedestrian exercise, is evidently in perfect 

 unison with the mode of life of these arboreal creatures, and 

 enables them to bound with such elastic energy through the 

 green canopy of the woods. 



' When the Ceylonese wanderoos are disturbed,' says Sir 



