Prince William and his bride, the Duchess of Cambridge, received more than a perfunctory wedding gift as they reached the most northerly point of their Canadian tour on Tuesday, when they were presented with a brooch and cufflinks made from locally mined diamonds, at the North West Territories capital Yellowknife.
The jewellery, made in the shape of polar bears, contained 692 stones: 302 in the brooch and 390 in the cufflinks, made by one of the world's leading specialists in the field, the Harry Winston company, and was exceptional even for a couple who lack little. They were told that the diamonds symbolised the permanence of relations between the territories' first nation, northern people and the British monarchy. The company would not say how much the gifts were worth, only that it took 250 man hours to cut the diamonds to shape.
More than 3,000 people turned out to greet the royal couple, who were treated to dancing, drumming and singing from local tribespeople and a display of street hockey, played with ice hockey sticks but on tarmac - the prince essayed a few shots at goal without taking his jacket off.
As has become customary this week, the prince tried a few words in the native language - dene, this time, not French: "Maihsi-cho, kay-ya-muck-puck," which roughly translated means thank you very much.
Yellowknife is not accustomed to much publicity, or celebrity visitors: founded as a gold mining town in the 1930s it is a long way from anywhere and Edmonton is regarded as the nearest metropolitan tourist centre. The gold mines have gone but the diamonds remain and the city has one of the highest per capita incomes in the country in order to entice workers to a place that has snow for eight months of the year and temperatures drop to -30C in winter.
Yesterday, by contrast, was warm and sunny. In the crowd were Andrea Booth, a local nurse and her father Jack Booth, up from Toronto on vacation with his partner Sharon Gilbert - they had decided to drive all the way and taken seven days to cover the 3,000 miles. Andrea said: "We have celebrities who come up here to hunt but they are usually incognito, so it's really fun to have a public event like this visit. It makes us feel part of the world."
Unlike in francophone Canada at the weekend, the crowd was warmly welcoming, with screams and whoops drowning out the obligatory - in this part of the world - Scottish pipe band dressed in kilts, sporrans and glengarries. Union flags were waved and one young woman - obviously more in hope than expectation - held up a home-made banner saying: "I am calm - I can still marry Harry."
On Wednesday the couple move on to meet victims of recent flooding in the Slave Lake area and rescue and emergency services there, but for most of the coming two days they are spending private time out of the public and media spotlight before re-emerging to attend the annual Calgary rodeo and stampede on Friday and heading south to Los Angeles to mingle in the celebrity culture of Hollywood over the weekend.
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