266 MAMMALIA — SLOTFI. 



blessings which have been so bountifully given to the rest of animated 

 nature ; for, as it has formerly been remarked, he has no soles to his feet, 

 and he is evidently ill at ease when he tries to move on the ground ; and it 

 is then that he looks up in your face with a countenance that says, ' Have 

 pity on me, for I am in pain and sorrow.' 



" It mostly happens that Indians and negroes are the people who catch 

 the sloth, and bring it to the white man. Hence it maybe conjectured that 

 the erroneous accounts we have hitherto had of the sloth have not been 

 penned down with the slightest intention to mislead the reader, or give him 

 an exaggerated history, but that these errors have naturally arisen by 

 examining the sloth in those places where nature never intended that he 

 should be exhibited. 



" However, v/e are now in his own domain. Man but little frequents 

 these thick and noble forests, which extend far and wide on every side of 

 us. This, then, is the proper place to go in quest of the sloth. We will 

 first take a near view of him. By obtaining a knowledge of his anatomy, 

 we shall be enabled to account for his movements hereafter, when we see 

 him in his proper haunts. His fore legs, or, more correctly speaking, his 

 arms, are apparently much too long, while his hind legs are very short, and 

 look as if they could be bent almost to the shape of a cork-screw. Both the 

 fore and hind legs, by their form, and by the manner in which they are 

 joined to the body, are quite incapacitated from acting in a perpendicular 

 direction, or in supporting it on the earth, as the bodies of other quadrupeds 

 are supported, by their legs. Hence, when you place him on the floor, his 

 belly touches the ground. Now, granted, that he supported himself on his 

 legs like other animals, nevertheless he would be in pain, for he has no 

 soles to his feet, and his claws are very sharp and long, and curved, so 

 that, were his body supported by his feet, it would be by their extremities; 

 just as your body Avould be were you to throw yourself on all fours, and try 

 to support it on the ends of your toes and fingers — a trying position. Were 

 the floor of glass, or of a polished surface, the sloth would actually be quite 

 stationary ; but as the ground is generally rough, with little protuberances 

 upon it, such as stones, or roots of grass, &c., this just suits the sloth, and 

 he moves his fore legs in all directions, in order to find something to lay 

 hold of; and when he has succeeded, he pulls himself forward, and is thus 

 enabled to travel onwards, but, at the same time, in so tardy a manner as to 

 acquire him the name of sloth. 



" Indeed, his looks and his gestures evidently betray his uncomfortable 

 situation ; and, as a sigh every now and then escapes him, we may be 

 entitled to conclude that he is actually in pain. 



" Some years ago I kept a sloth in my room for several months. I often 

 took him out of the house, and placed him upon the ground, in order to 

 have an opportunity of observing his motions. If the ground were rough, 

 he would pull himself forwards by means of his fore legs, at a pretty good 



