This is a chromoxylograph (a colour wood engraving, "chromo" meaning colour and "xylo" indicating wood) that was produced from a Hime photograph having the same title. It was published in Henry Youle Hind's Narrative of The Canadian Red River Exploring Expedition.... Hime's original photograph has sombre brown tones, opening to speculation the meaning of the skull in the lower-right corner which nineteenth-century viewers would have clearly understood to be that of an Indian. However, when the photograph was reproduced as a coloured engraving in Hind's Narrative..., the sky was made a bright blue and wisps of white clouds and a V-formation of game birds were added. The text that accompanies this colour plate refers to the "vast capabilities" and "marvellous beauties" of the Prairies. Together, the text and coloured engraving completely dispel the spectre of death suggested in Hime's original photograph in favour of a "promise of bountiful recompence."