I sometimes wonder what would've happened if I'd entered the competition instead - I'd probably have come nowhere and given up on the whole fiction game.

Simpson was impressed by Kane's artistic ability but at the same time worried that Kane might not have the stamina needed to travel with the fur brigades of the company. There he embarked on a three-week excursion by horse joining a large Métis hunting band that went buffalo hunting in Sioux lands in Dakota Territory in the United States. On October 6 1846 Kane left Edmonton for Fort Assiniboine where he again embarked with a canoe brigade up the Athabasca River to Jasper's House arriving on November 3.

Kane's work particularly his field sketches are still a valuable resource for ethnologists. On both trips Kane sketched and painted Aboriginal peoples and documented their lives. Upon his return to Toronto he produced more than one hundred oil paintings from these sketches.