A large part of the nomadic life was the search for game, and here Miller documented “an every-day occurrence.”
Parties of from 2 to 4 men start out every morning after breakfast in different directions to supply provision for the camp;–having been unsuccessful on the prairie, they have come down to the banks of the River Eau Sucre [Sweetwater];–and in default of Buffalo, are now ready to bag anything that offers;–Mountain Pheasant, Hare, Geese, Ducks, and “such small deer” are welcomed. (Ross, 1968, text accompanying plate 124)
Miller might have made this sketch in preparation for the painting that he included in the Walters commission (CR# 403A).
