172 ' WANDERINGS IN 



THIRD 

 JOURNEY. 



calm in these forests. The trade-wind gene- 



rally sets in about ten o'clock in the morning, 



and thus the sloth may set off after breakfast, 

 and get a considerable way before dinner. He 

 travels at a good round pace ; and were you to 

 see him pass from tree to tree, as I have done, 

 you would never think of calling him a sloth. 



Thus, it would appear that the different his- 

 tories we have of this quadruped are erroneous 

 on two accounts : first, that the writers of them, 

 deterred by difficulties and local annoyances, 

 have not paid sufficient attention to him in his 

 native haunts ; and secondly, they have described 

 him in a situation in which he was never intended 

 by nature to cut a figure ; I mean on the ground. 

 The sloth is as much at a loss to proceed on his 

 journey upon a smooth and level floor, as a man 

 would be who had to walk a mile in stilts upon a 

 line of feather beds. 

 The two- One day, as we were crossing the Essequibo, 



toed Sloth. *' 



I saw a large two-toed sloth on the ground upon 

 the bank ; how he had got there nobody could 

 tell : the Indian said he had never surprised a 

 sloth in such a situation before : he would hardly 

 have come there to drink, for both above and 

 below the place, the branches of the trees touched 

 the water, and afforded him an easy and safe 

 access to it. Be this as it may, though the trees 

 were not above twenty yards from him, he could 

 not make his way through the sand time enough 



