216 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



where cruelly stinging ants and scorpions, and swamps^ 

 and innumerable thorny shrubs and bushes, obstruct 

 the steps of civilised man. Were you to draw your 

 own conclusions from the descriptions which have been 

 given of the sloth, you would probably suspect, that no 

 naturalist has actually gone into the wilds with the fixed 

 determination to find him out and examine his haunts 

 and see whether nature has committed any blunder in the 

 formation of this extraordinary creature, which appears 

 to us so forlorn and miserable, so ill put together, and so 

 totally unfit to enjoy the 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 may be 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 examiniug the sloth in those 

 places where nature never intended that he should be 

 exhibited. 



However, we 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 



