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

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figure 2.10Paul Kane, Athabasca Riverand Roche Miette, fromMouth of Fiddle River,graphite on paper, 12.7 x 16.5cm, November 1846; alsoknown as Athabasca RiverLandscape.[Courtesy Royal Ontario Museum,946.15.234.]figure 2.11I.S. MacLaren. AthabascaRiver and Roche Miette,from Mouth of Fiddle Creek,May 1997.I . S . M a c L a r e n 51
Solomon Creek (downriver) and Fiddle River (upriver). The shape ofRoche Miette is so distinctive that one has trouble dismissing as erroneousthe identification of it in both sketches. Kane himself wrote thenumbers 31 (for the view from the mouth of Fiddle) and 32 (for the viewfrom the mouth of Solomon) in the upper left corner of the twosketches. It would seem necessary, then, to allow for the possibility thata site downriver from Solomon Creek remains to be identified as correct.However, one must also allow for the possibility that, although he tookthe trouble to make sketches, Kane made no entries in either his fieldnotes or his landscape log for a stretch of several days before arriving atJasper House and taking shelter from the wind and cold. When amoment at last afforded, perhaps he confused their order while writinghis entries in both field notebook and portrait and landscape log notebookand while numbering his sketches. 21 That these finished sketchesare, at least on occasion, later versions of more preliminary efforts iscertainly suggested by their colouring, which would have been nearlyimpossible to accomplish in the weather that Kane and the Hudson’sBay Company brigade encountered below Jasper House. What he couldhave accomplished on the spot in either case is clearer from an initialuncoloured sketch (Fig. 2.10) for number 31.If the photograph taken from the mouth of Fiddle River (Fig. 2.11) isfaithful in location to Kane’s sketch, notable again is the remarkablygreater vegetation cover on the unnamed ridge in the middle ground,which, washed in a reddish hue in Kane’s sketch, looks comparativelybarren. 22 As well, though, it is worth noting how much more green occupiesthe landscape in number 31 (Fig. 2.9) than in number 32 (Fig. 2.7);the lack of green on the lower slopes of the Boule Range in number 32 istherefore all the more striking and notable for its suggestiveness ofrecent fire activity.After reaching Jasper House by horse on 3 November and staying twonights, Kane continued by horse with the brigade up the valleys of theAthabasca and Whirlpool rivers to Athabasca Pass. He was able to rideuntil 10 November. Then, after sending the horses back to Jasper House,he continued for two days by snowshoe (“sum ware rude affairs,” hisfield note for 10 November states) before reaching the Committee’sPunch Bowl, which sits atop the pass. These days afforded him opportunityfor several landscape and other sketches. Evidence of the numbersthat Kane wrote in the upper left corner of sketches and their correspondingentries in his landscape log seems reliable as an indication of52 Henry James Warre’s and Paul Kane’s Sketches in the Athabasca Watershed, 1846
Page 1 and 2: 1 The University of Alberta PressEd
Page 3 and 4: Published byThe University of Alber
Page 5 and 6: 7 Laying the Tracks for Tourism 233
Page 7 and 8: figure 2.1Henry James Warre, RockyM
Page 9: figure 2.3Henry James Warre,Jasper
Page 13 and 14: figure 2.7Paul Kane, Jasper’s Lak
Page 15: figure 2.9Paul Kane, AthabascaRiver
Page 19 and 20: the order in which he made the sket
Page 21 and 22: figure 2.15I.S. MacLaren. Athabasca
Page 23 and 24: of Kane’s sketch. The advantage o
Page 25 and 26: figure 2.20Paul Kane, Snow Scene in
Page 27 and 28: figure 2.22I.S. MacLaren. Committee
Page 29 and 30: Appendix 1Kane’s Field Notes, 30
Page 31 and 32: Author’s NoteI thank Bob Hallam a
Page 33 and 34: subject to Jasper House. (The entry
Page 35 and 36: 28. George Simpson, Fur Trade and E
Page 37 and 38: Royal Ontario Museum: 92 ETH, 42-50
Page 39 and 40: Canadian Congress on Leisure Resear
Page 41 and 42: ———. Report of the Panel on t
Page 43 and 44: 2: 82-140. London: Samuel Curtis, 1
Page 45 and 46: Hart, E.J. Diamond Hitch: The Early
Page 47 and 48: ———. A History of Canada’s
Page 49 and 50: Nelson, J.G., and R.C. Scace, eds.
Page 51 and 52: Speares, Betty. “Mary, Mary, Quit

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