Friday, October 19.
A division of the stock—cattle, mules and horses—was effected in the forenoon, and some of us went up to the mines in the afternoon. A portion of the members appeared dissatisfied with the division. We had but few cattle left and they were very thin and in poor condition. Many of our mules and horses had died, and were left on the road; and those that were alive were nearly all seemingly worn out and of but little value.
The Granite State and California Mining and Trading Company was this day dissolved by a unanimous vote of its members.
It would have been dissolved long before it reached California had it not been for the beef cattle, which were the means of holding it together. They were their principle dependence for food, and it was not practical to divide them among small squads, as they would have been of very little benefit to them.
When we entered the Sacramento valley we had but three or four young cattle and they were so very poor that they could scarcely travel. They constituted our entire stock of provisions.
Two or three gross errors were committed by the managers before we left Boston, which were the cause, in great part, of the great length of time consumed on the road. First, the company should not have consisted of more than ten members, and it should not have been a
joint stock company; but each member should have provided for himself as he saw fit, with mules and provisions.
Then we should have had good mules, not less than four years old, and such as had been broken to packing. The majority of our mules were not over two or three years of age and had never been broken. They were entirely unfit for the exceedingly strenuous journey “across the plains.” For a pack train to drive cattle on that journey for their dependence for their provisions is a great absurdity.