122 VERTEBRATES. 



they have no soles to the feet, nor toes separately movable, bul • 

 only two or three claws, excessively long, and crooked downwards 

 and backwards. Unfurnished with teeth, they cannot seize any 

 prey, nor feed upon flesh, nor even upon vegetable food. Reduced 

 to live on leaves and wild fruits, they take up a long time in 

 crawling to a tree, and are still longer in climbing up to the 

 branches. During this slow and painful labor, which sometimes 

 lasts many days, they ^re obliged to support the most pressing 

 hunger J and when, at length, one of them has accomplished its 

 end, it fastens itself to the tree, crawls from branch to branch, 

 and by degrees strips the whole tree of its foliage. In this man- 

 ner it remains several weeks, without moistening its dry food with 

 any liquid ; and when it has consumed the store, and the tree is 

 entirely naked, yet unable to descend, it continues on till hunger 

 presses, and that becoming more powerful than the fear of danger ' 

 or death, it drops, like a shapeless, heavy mass, to the ground, 

 without being capable of exerting any effort to break the violence 

 of its fall. 



Mr. Waterton thus relates an adventure with one of these 

 animals : " One day, as we were crossing the Essequibo, I saw a 

 large two-toed sloth on the ground upon the bank ; how he 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 to escape before we landed. As soon as we got 

 up to him, he threw himself on his back, and defended himself 

 in gallant style with his fore legs. ' Come, poor fellow,' said I to 

 him, ' if thou hast got into a hobble to-day, thou shalt not suffer 

 for it : I'll take no advantage of thee in misfortune ; the forest is 

 large enough both for thee and me to rove in : go thy ways up 

 above, and enjoy thyself in these endless wilds; it is more than 

 probable thou wilt never have another interview with man. So. 

 fa.e thee well.' On saying this, I took up a large stick which 



