162 WANDERINGS IN 



Third aiid swamps, aiid innumerable thorny shrubs and bushes. 



Journey, 



obstruct the steps of civihzed man. Were you to draw 



your own conchisions 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 examining the Sloth 

 in those places where nature never intended that he 

 should be exhibited. 



However, we are now in his o^vn domain. Man but 

 little frequents these thick and noble forests, which 



