16 BULLETIN 1089, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The brisket is removed by cutting through the ribs along the carti- 
lages, and the abdominal muscles go with it. The cut follows the 
flanks up to the stifle joint. The backbone is removed entire, the 
heads of the ribs being disjointed at their points of attachment. The 
front leg is cut off at the elbow joint and the hind leg at the stifle. 
This leaves two sides with the shoulders and hams attached. Later 
the sides are cut into three pieces, leaving the hindquarters, ribs, and 
shoulders. The reason for cutting the legs so high is to save the 
sinews. The back sinew, which is the most valuable in the body, is 
removed from the long muscles of the back and the back fat is taken 
off. The saving of the sinews is important, since they are valuable 
for sewing purposes, the market value of a set from one animal being, 
in 1921, about $1.50. This method of cutting up a carcass is good 
when at a reindeer camp or out in the hills. It can be done on the 
ground in a cleanly manner and a knife is the only instrument re- 
quired. 
Utilizing natural cold storage. — A deep layer of permanently frozen 
earth and underground ice along the coast of Alaska offers natural 
cold-storage facilities so readily available in a large part of the 
Territory that it is surprising so little use has been made of it. In a 
few instances small storage rooms have been made by hewing out 
chambers in this frozen layer, but so far as can be ascertained the 
only large storage room in use is one made by the Bureau of Educa- 
tion at Point Barrow. In many places on the Seward Peninsula and 
elsewhere the frozen layer is composed of crystalline ice free from 
impurities. Its depth has not been ascertained by the authors, but 
shafts have been sunk in it to a depth of 20 or 30 feet. Covering the 
ice usually is a layer of soil one or more feet in thickness. In some 
places there are frozen beds on hill slopes, so that the storage rooms 
constructed in them could be entered on a level through a tunnel and 
thus obviate any danger of flooding from surface water or melting. 
In such a bed of ice the problem of keeping meat should be a simple 
matter. In another paragraph it has been recommended that reindeer 
be slaughtered after the cold weather has set in. Frozen carcasses 
could then be packed into one storage room at a time, which could 
then be carefully sealed. Double doors and sawdust will be necessary 
to insulate each room thoroughly. In this way it can be confidently 
predicted that meat can be kept almost indefinitely and at a trifling 
cost. 
Marketing and transportation. — The market in Alaska for rein- 
deer meat is as yet largely local and therefore limited by reason 
of the small and scattered population and the generally poor trans- 
portation facilities. Of the total native and white population of 
