477 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 



THE SLOTH. 



Miserable Aspect of the Sloth — His Beautiful Organisation for his Peculiar Mode 

 of Life — His Kapid Movements in the Trees— His Means of Defence — His 

 Tenacity of Life— Fable about the Sloth refuted— The Ai— The Unau— The 

 Mylodon Eobustus. 



' rpHE piteous aspect, the sorrowful gestures, the lamentable 

 JL cry of the Sloth, all combine to excite commiseration. 

 While other animals assemble in herds, or 

 roam in pairs through the boundless forest, 

 the sloth leads a lonely life in those im- 

 measurable solitudes, where the slowness of 

 his movements exposes him to every attack. 

 Harmless and frugal, like a pious an- 

 J chorite, a few coarse leaves are all he asks 

 for his support. On comparing him with 

 other animals, you would say that his de- 

 formed organisation was a strange mixture 

 of deficiency and superabundance. He has 

 no cutting teeth, and though possessed of 

 four stomachs, he still wants the long intestines of ruminating 

 animals. His feet are without soles, nor can he move his toes 

 separately. His hair is coarse and wiry, and its dull colour 

 reminds one of grass withered by the blasts of surly winter. 

 His legs appear deformed by the manner in which they are 

 attached to the body, and his claws seem disproportionably 

 long. Surely a creature so wretched and ill-formed stands last 

 on the list of all the four-footed animals, and may justly accuse 

 Nature of step-motherly neglect ! ' 



When seeing a captured sloth painfully creeping along on 

 even ground, sighing and moaning, and scarcely advancing a 

 few steps after hours of awkward toil, the observer might well be 



