degradation

She gave me a large bowlful, of which I drank very heartily, and found myself well refreshed. About noon, I saw coming towards the house a kind of vehicle drawn like a sledge by four _Yahoos_.

The country we had reached was already nearly a desert. Here and there could be seen an isolated farm, some solitary bur, or Icelandic house, built of wood, earth, fragments of lava--looking like beggars on the highway of life. These wretched and miserable hut...