Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

272 CAMPING AND WOODCRAFTat both sides and at the back. (It ^'s the membranethat separates the organs of the :hest fromthose of the abdomen.) Everything now is freefrom the body except at the throat and anus.Reach in and take in your grasp all the vesselsthat run up into the neck. With knife in the otherhand, cut them across from above downward, takingcare that you do not cut yourself. Now pullhere and there withaway gradually, helping a littlethe knife until all the contents of the visceral cavitylie at your feet, save the lower end of the rectum,which is still attached. With a hatchet, ifyou had one. you would now split the pelvis. Thething can be done with a large knife, if the animalis not too old, by finding the soft suture at the highestpart of the bone and rocking the knife-edge onit. But you may not be able to accomplish thisjust now. So reach in with the jack-knife, cutcarefully around the rectum and urinary organs,keeping as close to the bone as possible, and freeeverything from the cavity. If water is near, washout the cavity and let it drain, or wipe with a drycloth if 5^ou have one. Be particular to leave noclotted blood.To remove the head ; flay back the skin for severalinches at base of neck, cut through flesh, etc.,to the backbone. Search along this till you findthe flat joint between the faces of two vertebrae,separate these as far as you can ; then twist the attachedpart of the body round and round, until itbreaks off.Directions how to skin a head for mounting aregiven in Volume II.In butchering, save the liver, heart, brain, milt(spleen), kidneys, and the caul fat. The caul isthe fold of membrane loaded with fat that coversmost of the intestines. In removing the liver youneed not bother about a gall-bladder, for a deerhas none. Many a tenderfoot has been trickedinto looking for it. In the final cutting up, savethe marrow-bones (especially of elk) for eating;