138 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



been penned down with the slightest intention to mis- 

 lead 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, we are now in his own domain. Man but 

 little frequents these thick and noble forests, which ex- 

 tend 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 know- 

 Anatomy of ^edge of his anatomy, we shall be enabled 

 the sloth. 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 perpen- 

 dicular 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. JN'ow, 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 would 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 pro- 



