one who
requires a driver. Hundreds of associations were formed on various plans, some to go out by water and some .by land. Usually they were composed of from ten to fifty persons, though I have known companies c f 100, and one of 150 men. Each member contributed so much capital either in money or its equivalent, which was expended before starting in provisions, clothing, utensils, medicines, or whatever in the opinions of the officers would yield the largest profit, or tend most to the amelioration of the condition of the members. In Augusta, Maine, a society was formed of thirty persons, each contributmg $500, which capital was employed in the purchase of a ship of 200 tons, and freighting it with wooden houses, machines for washing and separating gold, a mill, and merchandise, of which a portion was to be sold in San Francisco, and part to be used by the members of the association in mining and milling operations of their own. Another similar copartner- ship was organized at Utica, New York, with a capi- tal of $30,000; and many others. The ships were to be sold or abandoned at San Francisco, and seamen eagerly shipped to be discharged there.
But these associations were mostly failures. They were too cumbersome, the men too inexperienced, tt»o little acquainted with the country and with what they proposed to elo, knowing neither each other nor themselves. The inefficient members cramped the energies of those who might succeed alone ; cumber- some associations cannot move with the promptness and celerity of individuals ; they are unable to act ineli- vidually, to seize occasions, and the best men belong- ing to them are usually most rejoiced to be free from them.
Codes were sometimes adopted and by-laws signed ; but from inexperience, and the festerings arising from new and strange abrasures^ overland parties frequently broke into helter-skelter scrambles before the jour- ney was half completed. Frequently the means
