from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A fat, thick-bodied variety of the lake trout, found in the upper part of Lake Superior.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. A freshwater fish from Lake Superior in the Great Lakes, a variety of the lake trout.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. A large, fat variety of the namaycush found in Lake Superior; -- called also siskawet, siskiwit.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A variety of the great lake-trout, Salvelinus (Cristivomer) namaycush, var. siscowet, found in Lake Superior, originally described as a distinct species called Salmo siscowet. See laketrout, 2.
Although virtually identical genetically to other lake trout of the Great Lakes, the siscowet is distinguished by its much higher fat content.
Thus the air bladder of siscowet living at the great depths in Lake Superior would be inflated to about 20 times the pressure of a typical automobile tire.
The siscowet occurs only in the deep, cold waters of Lake Superior at depths down to 1,333 feet 406 m.
The main difference between “normal” lake trout and the siscowet of Lake Superior is that siscowet have a much higher fat content.
The siscowet typically occurs from below 300 feet (100 m) to the greatest depths of Lake Superior at 1,333 feet (406 m), where the external pressure is 40 atmospheres.
The siscowet, named Salmo siscowet in 1850 by Louis Agassiz, is still commonly recognized as a subspecies, Salvelinus namaycush siscowet.
The distended belly of the siscowet, pictured above, is most likely the result of an overinflated air bladder when it was landed.
The most extreme form of deep-water lacustrine specialization is found in a distinctive form of lake trout, the siscowet, in the depths of Lake Superior.
The most distinctive form of lake trout is the siscowet, found only in the deep waters of Lake Superior, typically at least 300 feet 90 m down.
Other lake trout are esteemed as fine food fish, but siscowet are considered to be inedible when fresh and are smoked to make them palatable.