KELLETTS VOYAGE 139 



After the dinner party, on the 18th of July, the two 

 vessels started for the north, being joined as soon as 

 they stood from the anchorage by Robert Shedden in 

 his yacht the Nancy Dawson, who at his own initiative 

 had come up from Hong Kong to join in the search. 

 From Wainwright Inlet Kellett sent off the boats 

 under Lieutenant Pullen, two of which made the 

 journey along the northern coast and up the Mac- 

 kenzie, their crews thence making their way home east- 

 wards to York Factory. 



When Kellett was about to commence his observa- 

 tions at the inlet he drew a semicircle on the sand from 

 water's edge to water's edge, and placed the boats' 

 noses between its points. The natives seemed to 

 understand the meaning of this line. Not one of them 

 attempted to overstep it, and they squatted down and 

 remained perfectly quiet and silent. When a stranger 

 arrived they shouted to him, and he no sooner com- 

 prehended the directions than he crept rather than 

 walked to the boundary, and squatted among the rest. 

 Afterwards they danced and sang and played football 

 with the seamen who stood no chance with them at 

 that game and when they had gone off, after all this 

 good behaviour, it was discovered that they had been 

 picking the pockets of some of the party, one losing a 

 handkerchief, another a glove, and Commander Moore 

 a box of percussion caps. 



The boat party had a similar experience, without the 

 pocket-picking. Reaching Point Barrow they landed 

 to make observations and look about for traces of the 

 visit of the Blossoms boat, which they did not find. 

 Their interpreter did not understand the tribe, and 



