TO 
THE GOLDEN RIVER. 
dorado cannot: if pulled out of the stream, he 
loses something of his high courage, for he is a 
creature of swift water, and his fine mettle 
deserts him in the sluggish. He fights heavily 
no doubt; but his fight is of one kind : he swims 
deep, bores and jags; and he does not suddenly 
change his tactics and make an irresistible rush 
for the stream, as a salmon will. A heavy 
salmon will do all the boring and jagging just 
as well as a dorado, and in addition he has a 
shot or two in his locker which a dorado has not. 
To sum up, however, I consider the dorado the 
gamer fish. The first few minutes of a big one 
give you more than you get in salmon fishing; 
and, pound for pound, he is stronger and more 
muscular. But a salmon has more resource. 
We never got a bigger fish. No doubt there 
are such; report talks dimly of monsters weigh¬ 
ing one hundred pounds or more. They may 
exist. In some remote water, above the Falls 
of Guayra, little known even now, traversed 
only by the collector, the explorer or the hunter, 
the haunt of the jaguar, the boa constrictor and 
the tapir, a prize may await some fortunate 
fisherman. I can imagine no experience more 
glorious than a contest fought out in the 
unknown recesses of the tropical forest. May 
someone who reads this book be the lucky 
individual. 
