272 THE SIEGE OF THE NORTH POLE 



away a covering of dead flesh, a piece of bone was found 

 sticking out of the wound. Cagni had only scissors to 

 work with, but with these he managed to cut off' the 

 projection. The whole proceeding occupied him fully 

 two hours. His courage was beyond praise. 



On the 8th May the latitude was found to be 83° 42'. 

 On this date the temperature had risen to freezing-point. 

 On the 10th, Cagni discovered that he had drifted about 

 8 degrees of longitude to the west of Teplitz Bay. 

 In the latitude he was in this represented about 57 geo- 

 graphical miles. He therefore steered a course more to 

 the east. In spite of this new direction, Cagni found 

 two days later that he was still farther to the west. He 

 now hesitated to steer more to the east in case his 

 chronometers had been going more slowly, due to the rise 

 in temperature. This decision had an important bearing 

 on the future trials of the party. 



On the 18th May it was found that though the party 

 had been travelling nine days towards the south-east, they 

 were still on the same meridian. Channels now became 

 so frequent that the course was difficult to keep, and the 

 weather became stormy and foggy. On the 23rd May 

 latitude 82° T was reached, so that the party was now 

 nearly on a level with the northern part of Prince Rudolf 

 Island. The drift was, however, so great that during the 

 next six days only about 10 miles were covered towards 

 the island. Provisions were now running short, and both 

 the physical and mental condition of the men began to 

 deteriorate. According to the longitude, they were still 

 6 degrees west of Teplitz Bay. 



It now became necessary to ferry the sledges and dogs 

 across the channels on large pieces of ice, and progress 

 became very slow. After struggling desperately towards 

 the east, it was found on the 7th June that they were 

 farther to the west than on the 1st of the month. The 



