34 



TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. {August, 1848. 



pushing a large stick under them, when they twist round it, 

 and their head being then cautiously seized and tied to the 

 stick, they are easily carried home. Another interesting Httle 

 animal was a young sloth, which Antonio, an Indian boy, who 

 had enlisted himself in our service, brought alive from the 

 forest. It was not larger than a rabbit, was covered with 

 coarse grey and brown hair, and had a little round head and 

 face resembling the human countenance quite as much as a 

 monkey's, but with a very sad and melancholy expression. It 

 could scarcely crawl along the ground, but appeared quite at 

 home on a chair, hanging on the back, legs, or rails. It was a 

 most quiet, harmless little animal, submitting to any kind of 

 examination with no other manifestation of displeasure than 

 a melancholy whine. It slept hanging with its back down- 

 wards and its head between its fore-feet. Its favourite food is 

 the leaf of the Cecropia peltata^ of which it sometimes ate a 

 little from a branch we furnished it with. After remaining 

 with us three days, we found it dead in the garden, whither it 

 had wandered, hoping no doubt to reach its forest home. It 

 had eaten scarcely anything with us, and appeared to have 

 died of hunger. 



We were now busy packing up our first collection of insects 

 to send to England. In just two months we had taken the 

 large number of 553 species of Lepidoptera of which more 

 than 400 were butterflies, 450 beetles, and 400 of other orders, 

 making in all 1,300 species of insects. 



Mr. Leavens decided on making the Tocantins trip, and we 

 agreed to start in a week, looking forward with much pleasure 

 to visiting a new and unexplored district. 



