This is one of a series of casual oil studies that Russell probably executed on sketching trips around his summer home at Bull Head Lodge, Glacier National Park, around 1910. That summer he spent a lot of time hiking and sketching with his artist-friend, the New York illustrator Philip Goodwin. It is highly likely that Goodwin provided advice to Russell about outdoor sketching in oil; Russell learned a good deal about oil painting (which he always maintained was hard for him) from Goodwin and the other New York artists who were his closest friends. All of these sketches are painted on small pieces of unstretched linen canvas, probably cut by the artist himself to fit in a sketchbox. A photograph from the period shows Russell hiking in the Glacier Park country with a sketchbox and shoulder strap, so outdoor sketching was probably a commonplace activity for him. The tentative titles for each of these sketches are based on identification of the geology, flora, and fauna of the area of Glacier Park where Russell’s summer cabin was located.