504 PHILOLOGICAL INQUIRIES. 



has been for centuries tainted with human blood ! but per- 

 haps many of thefe morail'cs liave been deep and wide 

 haunts of fea monfters ! within a few years how many 

 bogs that fwallowed the unwary traveller, and poifoned the 

 adjacent villages, have been changed into flowery meads ! 

 the human heart will alfo be cleanfed ! if finks of corrup- 

 tion are neceflary, they will be few and narrow ! the fol- 

 lowing large mire-families are near relatives of great wa- 

 ters : — Is. mar, AS. mere, moor, S. moras, myra, G. 7noraf} , 

 H. via'ras, F. marais, a moor — W. A. inor, Ir. muir, AS. 

 mere, R. B. more, P. morzc, G. 7iieer, Fi. meri, L. mare, 

 the fea. The root of all is very ancient, perhaps prior to 

 the Gr. y-ifu, to flow, and the lake mceris of Egypt. Pliny 

 mentions morimarufa as a part of the northern fea, ob- 

 fcurcly known, but no doubt fo named from freezing (Fi. 

 warms, wnnter ; P. marzne, to congeal: — S. mojfar, moifes 

 — Gr. /««.a'T,?, the Mseotic lake, that communicates with 

 the Black fea — Hu. motfar, a morafs : R. mojos, ?notfchu, 

 P. mncz-e to dip, moifl:en : — Fens, extenfive in fome parts 

 of ancient England, and remaining in part : the word, 

 though Gothic, is not underflood in a great part of Swe- 

 den ; but many places there have kindred names — Funen, 

 one of the Daniih iflands — Sinus Veneiicus in ancient geo- 

 graphy — L. fans, a fpiing : — Fi. Juo, a moor, or mofs : S. 

 Jump, G.fwnpf, a pool — h'b.feo, the fea : H. zee, G.Jee, S. 

 fid, fea, lake : la. fuijji, a feaman. The lame words mean 

 both lakes and moors in feveral languages, which indicates 

 that their difference was not fl:riking ; as Gr. >./^v»; W. 

 Ihyiui^grelyn ; ^. trafk ; Yi.jcsrfvi. In Lapland and Fin- 

 land are bodies of Ihallow water above an hundred miles 

 in length, with numerous iflands, fome places of depth, 

 and ftored with fifli. The fens and mcers of England 

 were formerly limilar : Camden defcribes the Wittefs mere 

 lake in Huntingdonfliire as fix miles in length, and three 

 in breadth, clear, deep, and full of fifh.* As the ftiores 



of 



* Britannia Antiqua. p. 500. 



