i i en ir. n 



or three cla proportionately Inn-', and ; 



dou which move together, ;iud are more 



hurtful ! their walking than ad\antai;eous in as- 

 Mstm- i (limb. Slowness, habitual pain, 



and .stupidity arc the results of iliis strange and 

 ^ r led conformation. The Sloths have no wea- 

 pons cither or defensive. They are fur- 

 ni>lied \\ith no in. aiis >f .-afety; for they can neither 

 run, nor di.-j into the earth. Confined to a small 

 space, or to the tree under which they are brought 

 forth, they arc prisoners in the midst of space, and 



;ot move the length of one fathom in an hour. 

 They drag theniM 1\< -s up a tree with much labour 

 and pain; their cry, and interrupt they 



only utter in the ni.?ht: all these circum- 

 .stanee.s ann-Mince the misery of the Sloths, and recal 

 to our minds those defeetiu- monsters, those im- 



i -ketches of Nature, \\hieh, bein^ hardly 



! with faculties of existence, could not sub- 



IciiLrth o\' time, and ha\c accordingly 



been .-.truck out of the list of beings. li'the, regions 



inhabited by the Sloths were not desert, but had 



been occupied for any length of time by Man and 



the larger anim ds, these creatures would neu-r ha\c 



descended tu our times } but would hav 



