326 
THE STORY OF THE SLOTH. 
any living creature. If an animal is wounded, although slightly, by a 
weapon charged with this poison, it runs a few paces, staggers, and lies 
down as if to sleep, and in a few minutes is dead. The effect is the same 
upon man. Two Indians were hunting after birds, and one of them had just 
launched a poisoned arrow at a bird nearly above him. The arrow missed 
its mark, glanced against a bough, and in its fall struck into the arm of the 
man who had thrown it. He looked at his arm, took off his quiver of 
arrows, remarked that he should never use them again, laid himself down, 
and was dead almost immediately. 
No account of the sloth would be complete without some reference to 
the gigantic ground-sloths which were formerly so abundant in South 
America, as it is by their aid alone that we are able to comprehend the rela¬ 
tionship of the true sloths to the ant-eaters. The best known of these crea¬ 
tures is the megatherium, which rivalled the elephant in bulk. They may 
be described as possessing the skulls and teeth of sloths, and the backbones, 
limbs, and tails of ant-eaters. They agreed with the sloths in having large 
and complete collarbones; but, as I infer from the conformation of the lower 
jaw, they approximated to the ant-eaters in the elongation of their tongues. 
The majority of the ground-sloths were South American; but one species 
of megatherium ranged into North America. 
