beneath them; when at rest, it hangs from them; and it sleeps
clutching them with its strong claws, and its back hanging downwards."

One of the creatures was hanging as our friend described; the other was
on its way up the tree. It stopped on seeing us approach, and turned
its round short head, with deeply sunk eyes and a large nose, to look at
us. The animals had long powerful claws on all their feet. The hair
was very coarse and shaggy, more like grass or moss than anything else.

"The sloth suckles its young like other quadrupeds," observed our
friend; "and I have often seen the female, with her little one clinging
to her, moving at a rate through the forest which shows that the sloth
does not properly deserve its name. See now--give a shout--and then say
if it is too sluggish to more."

John and I shouted together, and True barked loudly. The sloths gave
reproachful glances at us for disturbing them, and then began to move
away at a speed which an active sailor running up the rigging of a ship
could scarcely equal. In a short time, slinging themselves from branch
to branch, they had disappeared in the depths of the forest.

"Let them go," observed our friend. "You do not want a meal, or you
would find their flesh supply you with one not to be disdained." The
last remark was made as we again moved on. Once more we relapsed into
silence. When, however, a bird, or moth, or any creature appeared, our
guide stopped for an instant, and turning round, told us its name and
habits. We passed several curious trees, one of which he pointed out
rising from the ground in numerous stalks, which then united in a thick
stem, and afterwards, half-way up, bulged out in a long oval, again to
narrow, till at the summit six or eight branches, with palm-like formed
leaves, spread forth, forming a graceful crown to the curious stem. He
called it the _Iriartes ventricosa_, or bulging-stemmed palm. Again we
passed through a grove of urucuri palms (_Attalea excelsa_). Their
smooth columnar stems were about forty or fifty feet in height, while
their broad, finely pinnated leaves interlocked above, and formed arches
and woven canopies of varied and peculiarly graceful shapes. High above
them rose the taller forest trees, whose giant branches formed a second
canopy to shade them from the glaring rays of the sun. Many of the
trees rose eighty feet without a branch, their stems perfectly straight.
Huge creepers were clinging r