CHAPTER XIV. 
WHAT THE DORADO IS. 
Though his English name is the Golden 
Salmon, the dorado is no salmon at all: nor, 
though his Latin name is Salminus Maxillosus , 
is he even a relation of that noble house. He 
belongs to a numerous but rather bourgeois 
family, the Characinidce, whose members 
inhabit fresh waters in Africa and, more 
particularly, tropical and sub-tropical South 
America. Here they are represented by so 
many individuals and of such diversified 
characteristics that they have to be divided 
into many groups, and they are a plentiful 
and powerful race. The particular genus to 
which the dorado belongs, that of Salminus , 
contains by the latest classification four species 
altogether. But very little is known of any of 
them, including the dorado, as will be shown in 
a moment. 
The Characinidce are a family of fishes not 
found in Europe and typical of South America; 
and they occupy in this part of the New World 
very much the same place as the Cyprinoid 
