WHAT THE DORADO IS. 
113 
fishes, or Carps, take in the Old. In the Carps 
are included most of those British fresh water 
fish which are rather insultingly known as 
‘coarse.’ Not only the Carp itself, but the 
Barbel, the Roach, the Dace, the Tench, the 
Bream and the Gudgeon, are all Cyprinoids. 
There are no carps in South America. There¬ 
fore, to put it shortly and quite unscientifically, 
the Dorado family occupy in South America the 
place which the Carp family occupy in Europe. 
There is little structural affinity between them; 
but, speaking again quite unscientifically, the 
dorado with his great depth bears some outward 
likeness to the carp. 
But the likeness is superficial. The dorado, 
built on strong, clean lines, could be none other 
than a lover of fast streams. There is nothing 
of the pond fish about him. He is formed to 
take his pleasure in racing water. He is a 
beautiful fish. His main colour is what is 
known as old gold : a deep and yet glowing hue. 
He has small black spots on his broad sides, and 
down the middle of his strong square tail runs 
a crimson bar. 
I must apologise for this slight and 
amateurish description. Finding the dorado 
common in South American rivers, seeing that 
it had been known for years, if not for centuries, 
and that it was valued highly for sport and 
food, it never occurred to me that it had not 
been fully described. I therefore kept no 
i 
