undred pounds that he would go over the Falls of Niagara and come out
alive at the bottom! No one being inclined to take him up, after a good
deal of discussion as to how this perilous feat was to be accomplished,
the plan was disclosed. To place on Table Rock a crane, with a long arm
reaching over the water of the Horse-shoe Fall; from this arm would
hang, by a stout rope, a large bucket or cask; this would be taken up
some distance above the Fall, where the mill-race slowly glides towards
the cataract; here the adventurer would get into the cask, men stationed
on the Table Rock would haul in the slack of the rope as he descended,
and the crane would swing him clear from the cataract as he passed over.
Here is a chance for any gentleman sportsman to immortalize himself!

SIR JAMES ALEXANDER.

* * * * *

THE SLOTH.

[Illustration]

The Sloth, in its wild condition, spends its whole life on the trees,
and never leaves them but through force or accident; and, what is more
extraordinary, it lives not _upon_ the branches, like the squirrel and
the monkey, but _under_ them. Suspended from the branches, it moves, and
rests, and sleeps. So much of its anatomical structure as illustrates
this peculiarity it is necessary to state. The arm and fore-arm of the
sloth, taken together, are nearly twice the length of the hind legs; and
they are, both by their form and the manner in which they are joined to
the body, quite incapacitated from acting in a perpendicular direction,
or in supporting it upon the earth, as the bodies of other quadrupeds
are supported by their legs. Hence, if the animal be placed on the
floor, its belly touches the ground. The wrist and ankle are joined to
the fore-arm and leg in an oblique direction; so that the palm or sole,
instead of being directed downwards towards the surface of the ground,
as in other animals, is turned inward towards the body, in such a manner
that it is impossible for the sloth to place the sole of its foot flat
down upon a level surface. It is compelled, under such circumstances, to
rest upon the external edge of the foot. This, joined to other
peculiarities in the formation, render it impossible for sloths to walk
after the manner of ordinary quadrupeds; and it is indeed only on broken
ground, when he can lay hold of stones, roots of grass, &c., that he can
get along at all. He then extends his arms in all directions in search
of something