PHILOLOGICAL INQUIRIES. 505 



of thefe waters grow by the gradual accumulation of mud, 

 they may finally flirink into a narrow compafs, ftill retain- 

 ing the original name, though it comes to fignify what they 

 really are ; but this muft not prevent our exploring the 

 etymon : thus the large hollows in the woods of Sweden 

 called /agor, often dry, are probably relicks of lakes, and 

 relatives of the W. Ihux, Ir. loch^ names of the fine lakes 

 in Ireland and North Britain ; the rather as feveral marks 

 indicate their ancient ufe in Scandinavia : proper names of 

 fome lakes, particularly the old Laugur of Ma/am, a 

 lake that at ftockholm opens into the Baltic, So miles long: 

 the Finnifh laki for a bay, &c. 



R. higia, G. lache, ponds, are of the fame family. As all 

 the names for morafles are related to rivers, lakes, &c. 

 and not feldom the fame word fignifies the one in one 

 country, and the other in another, they merit confideration. 

 Names that in modern fenfe mean only a brook, do not 

 pi'ove that it was always fo, for many examples fliow the 

 ancient want of diftindb names: as Gr, 7roT«^xic; W. avofi, 

 fignify rivers of very diflPerent kinds. 



Many names of meadows denote wet : — Gr, ^i-^/w — A. 

 fcenneck — Ir. Icatia^ (from leami, W. Ihyn, liquor.) — R. 

 luga : P. /aga — G. wie/e : aucn:* — When the fea retires, 

 extenfive lands retain the names of fhores, as the Dozv?is, 

 the marches in Germany and Scotland, &c. but in time thefe 

 will not be intelligible without knowing obfolete names 

 for the fea. The fame applies to places in the vicinity of 

 that, lakes, rivers : — hills in low lands frequently fignify 

 ifland-, as holme ^ an ancient general Teutonic, and ftill 

 the common name for fmall illands in the Swedifli lakes, f 

 3 U The 



* In fome parts of Sweden large tvadls of grafl'y fhores are called miir, 

 which is but myra, or moor altered by time ; yet this word is a matter of 

 wonder in thofe parts, where tiiojfe, &c. are ufcd for the other, and the more, 

 becaufc mur ahb is the common name for a wall. 



■\ Extenfive and accurate knowledge of the very numerous names for 

 water, and its relatives would happily illuftiate both this fubjefl, and the 



