142 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



cling to tlie brittle extremity of the branches, lest they 

 should break with him in passing from one tree to 

 another ; bnt, as soon as the wind rises, the branches 

 of the neighbouring trees become interwoven, and then 

 the sloth seizes hold of them, and pursues his journey 

 in safety. There is seldom an entire day of calm in 

 these forests. The trade- wind generally 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 histories 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. 



One day, as we were crossing the Essequibo, I saw 

 The two- ^ large two-toed sloth on the ground upon 

 toed sloth. ^YiQ 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 

 fjcom him, he could not make his way through the sand 



