Their methods of locomotion and modes of transportation are not described. They were very rich in horses, and doubtless made use of them as beasts of burden. The fact that large bodies of this people made extended journeys in their various migrations and colonizings, is beyond dispute. From one family they filled a continent, or more properly two continents. The use of ships is not mentioned until the middle of the last century before the Christian era. These were then used in conveying immigrants, lumber, provisions, etc., to the northern continent; the first ship-building, of which we have an account, having been done at the settlements near the Isthmus of Panama, to which point good roads had by that time been constructed. In the earlier history of the Nephites it is probable that most of their material was transported on pack animals, as is done today in the regions then inhabited by them. In the dense tropical vegetation of the wilderness, and along the mountain slopes of the Andes, road-making was difficult and expensive, and packing on the backs of animals (say the horse, the mule, the llama, the alpaca, etc.,) was the cheapest and most convenient to a comparatively poor and small people. Chariots are mentioned but seldom, The Lamanite monarch, Lamoni, had his horses and chariots, to which reference is more than once made; and in after years, when the Nephites gathered with all they possessed into one place, to defend themselves against the Gadianton robber (A. C. 17), they removed their provisions, grain, etc., by means of vehicles called chariots. These are the only instances, which the writer remembers where vehicles of any kind are spoken of in the Book of Mormon, in connection with the inhabitants of this continent. CHAPTER LV. AGRICULTURE AMONG THE NEPHITES--GRAINS--STOCK RAISING--IRRIGATION. No sooner had Lehi and his little colony arrived on the promised land than they commenced the cultivation of the soil, planting therein the seeds they had brought with them from the land of Judea, which, to their great joy, yielded abundantly. The grains and fruits of the Asiatic continent were found to flourish as luxuriantly in the soil of America as in their native land. This not only held good in the land of the Nephites' first inheritance, but also in the lands of their later possession--Nephi, Zarahemla, etc., as all through the Book of Mormon we have occasional references (incidental to the story of their history) to the success that attended their farming operations. Nor must it be imagined that their business was carried on in the primitive manner that characterizes the labors of Laman's degenerate descendants today. Agricultural machinery, and all manner of tools of every kind to till the ground, are mentioned by more than one writer.