Henry James Warre's and Paul Kane's Sketches in the Athabasca ...

figure 2.9Paul Kane, AthabascaRiver and Roche Miette,from Mouth of Fiddle River,watercolour over graphiteon paper, 12.7 x 17.8 cm,November 1846; also knownas Athabasca River andRocky Mountains.[Courtesy Royal Ontario Museum,946.15.131.1.]sketching grows problematic at this point. He mentions in his field notefor 31 October that he “mad a sketch of the river and Mountin in thedistance,” and describes in his landscape log the sketch (Fig. 2.9) towhich he assigned number 31: “Athabuscu River with the Rocke mountensin the distance.” Part of his field note for 2 November, two dayslater, reads “made a sketch of the lake with Meayets Rock in thedistence,” and therefore suggests the sketch to which he assignednumber 32 (Fig. 2.7), which his landscape log specifically calls “Meatsrock.” 20 Yet it has proven impossible to find a view that matches the onedepicted in number 31 (Fig. 2.9) without travelling upriver fromSolomon Creek and Brule Lake towards Roche Miette. The mouth ofFiddle River provided the site for a contemporary photograph, whichaligns the unnamed ridge in front of Roche Miette so that it approximatesthe configuration drawn by Kane. It is improbable that Kanesomehow reached that river mouth before making a sketch from themouth of Solomon Creek (Fig. 2.7); after all, Brule Lake stands between50 Henry James Warre’s and Paul Kane’s Sketches in the Athabasca Watershed, 1846