FAMILY GADIDAE 259 



the Missouri River basin. It occurs in the Columbia River watershed 

 and probably intergrades with L. lotu leptiira, the subspecies found in 

 Alaska and eastern Siberia, in the Fraser and Mackenzie basins (Hubbs 

 and Schultz, 1941) . It is common in Lake Superior where it ranges to 

 depths of over 600 feet. It is more or less common in all the larger 

 streams and most of the lakes of Wisconsin and northern Minnesota. 

 Evermann and Latimer (1910) reported it as one of the most abundant 

 j&shes in Lake of the Woods. Although rarely found south of Mille Lacs, 

 it is taken occasionally as far south as Lake Pepin and the Whitewater 

 River. On the Upper Mississippi at Wolf Lake near Bemidji, Minne- 

 sota it is often incorrectly called a dogfish. It is not particularly abun- 

 dant there. It is very destructive to other fishes, particularly to white- 



Figure 57. Eastern burbot, Lota lota maculosa, 21 inches long. 



fishes. It will kill whitefishes of its own size or even larger. Professor 

 George W. Friedrich of St. Cloud State Teachers College caught a 15- 

 inch burbot attempting to swallow a 12-inch walleye. At Red Lake 

 during the fall of 1918 it was taken on the whitefish spawning beds, 

 and the burbots examined had stomachs distended with whitefish eggs. 

 Stomachs collected in winter and examined at the University of Min- 

 nesota contained perch and minnows. 



The burbot spawns in midwinter or in early spring before the ice has 

 melted. A number of females caught February 15, 1938 had already 

 laid their eggs. Fry with traces of yolk sac still persisting have been 

 secured at Lake Vermilion about the middle of April when the water 

 temperature was still at 35° F. Young burbot are sometimes found in 

 'streams tributary to lakes, and it is possible that some adults enter 

 streams to spawn. Olson (1945) found burbot spawning in midwinter 

 in the swift water of a stream near Ely, Minnesota. The fact that 

 many newly hatched young are found on the shallow, sandy bottoms 

 of lakes indicates that some burbots spawn in lakes. Commercial fish- 

 ermen claim that they spawn in the spring in Lake Superior. During 

 the summer adult burbots are usually found only in deep water. 



Some years ago, about 1913 or 1914, Mr. S. P. Wires, the late veteran 

 superintendent of the Duluth federal hatchery, had had in his posses- 



