HERE AND THERE IN AMERICA 
THE SLOTE. 
IF the naturalists who have written the history of the 
sloth had gone into the wilds, in order to examine his 
haunts and economy, they would have learned, that though 
all other quadrupeds may be described while resting upon 
the ground, the sloth is an exception to this rule, and that 
his history must‘ be written 
while he is in the tree. 
This singular animal is des- 
tined by nature to be pro- 
duced, to live, and to die in 
the trees; and to do justice 
to him, naturalists must 
examine him in this his upper 
alement. He is a scarce and 
Solitary animal, and being 
good food he is never allowed 
fo escape. He inhabits re- 
mote and gloomy forests, 
where snakes take up their 
abode, and where eruelly sting- 
ing ants &nd scorpions, and Swamps, and innumerable 
thornv shrubs and bushes, obstruct the steps of civilized 
man. Were you to draw your own conclusions from 
the descriptions which have been given of the sloth, 
you would probably suspect that no naturalist has actu- 
’”” one into the wilds with the fixed determination