The highest mountain in the island, which is about 2000 feet high, is called “Sneafell” (_Norw._, Sneefjeld; _Eng._, Snow-mountain). On the east side is the rivulet and town of “Laxey” (Laxaa); in the south-east is the long naze, “Langness.” To these may be added the bay called Derby Haven, which the Norwegians called “Rognvaldsvágr,” whence the neighbouring Ronaldsway derived its name. There are also the inlets of Perwick and Fleswick; the islands Calf of Man, Eye (Oë), and Holm, near the town of Peel; and, lastly, the villages Colby, Greenaby, Dalby, Kirby (Kirkeby), Sulby, and Iurby (formerly “Ivorby”—Ivarsby?), &c. The proportionately large number of names of places ending in “by,” which suddenly appear in Man, in contrast to the more northern islands, with their pure Norwegian names of places ending in “bol” and “bolstaðr,”—which, it must be observed, are not to be found on Man,—is a sort of proof that it received some colonists from the neighbouring old Danish Cumberland, by which means a mixed Norwegian-Danish population arose in the island. The antiquary is much surprised to find on Man not merely one, but several of those runic stones, with genuine Scandinavian inscriptions, which he may have sought for in vain in England and Scotland. The different districts of the island contain altogether about thirty ancient sculptured monuments or sepulchral crosses; and of these at least thirteen have once had runic inscriptions, which in great part are still preserved. It is remarkable enough that these runic inscriptions are found exclusively in the more northern half of the island (at Kirk Andreas, two; at Kirk Michael, four; at Kirk Braddan, one; and at Kirk Onchan, five); whence we may, with some degree of probability, conclude that, at the time when these runic stones were erected, the Scandinavian language was the most prevalent one in the northern part of the island. The chronicles, indeed, state that the Norwegian, Godred Crovan, who conquered Man in the year 1077, retained the southern part of the island for himself and his followers; but the before-mentioned runic stones are certainly older than Godred’s conquest. The inscriptions on the stones have hitherto been copied and explained only in a very imperfect manner; but since casts in plaster have been taken of them, their interpretation has become incomparably easier and more simple. I have myself closely examined and compared them in two places (at Edinburgh, in the Museum of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries, and at Canons Ashby, in England, the seat of Sir Henry Dryden, Bart.); and I have since had an opportunity to renew my examination of all of them, in conjunction with the learned Norwegian professor, P. A. Munch, to whom I am indebted for several very important hints relative to their correct interpretation (amongst others that the rune ᚮ, which in most inscriptions signifies _o_, must in these always be read as _b_). [Illustration: [++] Stones - Runic Inscriptions]