a marsh, fen, or low moist ground, which receives the waters from above without having any outlet to carry them off again. Sommer derives the word from the Saxon merse, lake; Salmasius from mare, a collection of waters; others from the German marast, a muddy place; and others again from marese, an abbreviation of mariscetum, a mariscis, rushes. In Scotland, Ireland, and the north of England, there is a particular kind of morasses called mosses, or peat-mosses, whence the country people dig their peat or turf for fuel.