a post-fix) in Norway, in what sense given it remains to find out. 

 Tong Fell also corresponds with a mountain in Iceland, the word, 

 as Cleasby observes, being commonly applied in local names to 

 anything resembling the shape of a tongue. Mell Fell, which also 

 corresponds with a Mel Fell in Norway, may perhaps be firom 

 O.N. tnelr, a kind of bent-grass which grows on sandy soil. (Of 

 this word, which also means a sand-hill covered with bent grass, 

 and also a bare sand-bank, and which is common in local names 

 in Iceland, we seem to have more distinct traces along the coast 

 where such vegetation is most common. We have Melay near 

 AUonby, perhaps properly Melar (plural " sand-hills"), and so the 

 same as a Melar in Iceland, and we have Esk meals, which I 

 suppose to be sand-banks at the mouth of the river Esk). There 

 is another mountain called Mellbreak, but for this I may perhaps 

 venture to suggest a different explanation. The O.N. brekka 

 signified a slope, and was applied to the hill where public meetings 

 were held and laws promulgated. The prefix mel in this case 

 might then be from O.N. mAl, conference, and the hill, which is 

 by the side of Crummock lake, might be the place of public 

 meeting for the Northmen of the surrounding district. I, how- 

 ever, suggest this with diffidence, for I have learned to suspect a 

 derivation whenever it promises to be a little more interesting than 

 usual. There is, however, a mountain in Norway called Lovbrekke 

 which may be from the Dan. lov, law, and which therefore may 

 rather favour the above explanation. But if our word break be, 

 as I rather suppose, the same as the O.N. brekka, it is a word 

 which seems in an etymological point of view to stand alone. 

 For the word concerned is the same as Eng. " brink," and I do 

 not know of another instance in which we follow the Old Northern 

 speech in similarly leaving out the nasal. Thus, for an instance, 

 the O.N. brattr, steep, becomes with us brant. There is a word 

 latter found in mountain names, as Latterbarrow, Latrigg, and 

 VVhinlatter, which is somewhat puzzling. There is a mountain 

 called Latrabjorg which compares etymologically with our Latter- 

 barrow, and which Cleasby derives from l&,tr, a place where 

 animals lay their young, and which we may perhaps accept in 

 default of a better explanation. 



