Zähringen in the twelfth century, wandered along the Aar valley, and upon this flat-topped peninsula he hunted and killed a ferocious bear. The animal had been a terror to the inhabitants, and in commemoration of the event Berthold founded the town in 1191, naming it after the bear. Thus began the devotion to Ursa Major which has always been the pride of the Bernese, the word Baren being German for bears, and during more than seven centuries these loyal people have kept pet bears in the town, have set up images of bears, and in every way shown their devotion, the bear appearing in effigy and name in all places, on coats of arms, signs, heraldic emblems, on fountains and flagstaffs, in clock-towers striking the hours, as toys and heroes in unlimited variety. There is a herd of pet bears kept in spacious pits at the public expense, while the population pay obeisance. Thus has it been during the centuries. In 1798, when Napoleon despoiled all this part of Europe of its treasures to carry off to Paris, he took thither the historic bears from Bern. The city was inconsolable, and when the Empire fell, one of the chief stipulations of the Swiss was for the return of the bears and they were brought back with great pomp and rejoicing. These bears are closely guarded and only bread and fruit can be given them. Upon the side wall of the ancient West Gate, a most revered relic of the past, the Zeitglockenthurm, now the central point of the greatly extended city, is the old Clock Tower. Here sits the great Berthold in solemn state,

and the approach of each hour is proclaimed to him. by the crowing of a cock. When the time comes, a troop of bears marches around him, a dignified bear nods his head at every stroke, and Berthold opens his mouth and swings his sceptre.

Bern is one of the most picturesque towns of Switzerland. It is attractive from its old-fashioned streets with their shady arcades, the weird gateways, the quaint fountains, the constant flowing of the waters through the highways, the houses with huge gabled roofs, turreted angles and oriel windows, the grand Cathedral rising from its rocky base far above the rushing Aar, and its glorious view of the snowy mountains of the distant Oberland range. The running waters make Bern a paradise for the washerwomen. The fountains set up so numerously on the streets are provided with spouts from which flow a perennial stream for their special use, and permanent tubs and washstands are established that are almost always in use. This is a special feature of Bern, and is reproduced in most of the Swiss towns, where the mountain streams so readily provide an unfailing water-supply. The finest edifice of modern construction in Bern is the Federal Palace, two great buildings on a commanding height, where the Swiss government is located, with the chambers of the two National Legislative Assemblies. It was here that the International Postal Union was founded in October, 1874. These structures are known as the Bundeshauser, being respectively called the East

Building and West Building. A fountain figure of Berna in heroic bronze adorns the front, and from the terrace there is a magnificent view of the mountains. The Münster, or Bernese Cathedral built in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries rises high above the Aar, the modern tower elevated over three hundred and twenty feet above the base of the building. Within is the monument erected to Berthold von Zähringen, by the city in 1600, while upon the terrace out over the Aar, is his statue, having Bruin alongside as his helmet-bearer.

The city has several museums, with displays of art and antiquities. In the Historical Museum are objects from the lake dwellings, old armor, and ecclesiastical survivals, including a famous Diptych, possessed by Bern since the Reformation, a cause which the people espoused with great fervor. This was for a long time supposed to be the field altar of Charles the Bold. It was made in Venice at the end of the thirteenth century for King Andrew of Hungary, and Queen Agnes presented it to the Abbey of Königsfelden in the fourteenth century, whence it came to Bern. The great charm of the city, however, is the splendid view of the Alps, the grand galaxy of snowy peaks rising in magnificent array across the southern landscape, and the rich Alpine glow being seen with rare enjoyment on pleasant evenings. This gorgeous Alpenglühen appears a few minutes after the setting sun has disappeared from view, the dark intervening valleys then being subdued in the twilight.

THE LAKE OF THUN.

From Bern we ascend the Aar to the lake of Thun, through a deep, broad and richly cultivated valley, the stream being embanked to save as much arable land as possible. This lake is a beautiful sheet of water, having at its lower end, built on the flat surface of the valley alongside the Aar, the village of Thun about nineteen miles from Bern. It is a quaint old place, the portal of the Oberland, and above it rises at nearly two thousand feet elevation the square towered castle of Zähringen-Kyburg, built in the twelfth century to control the passage of the lake. Its pyramidal roof is guarded by conical-topped corner turrets. The lake of Thun, which is over eighteen hundred feet above sea level, is an expansion of the Aar, about two miles wide and eleven miles long. It begins among the high mountains and rugged scenery of the Bernese Alps, but as the enclosing valley passes out of the mountain range, it gradually becomes a quieter scene of pleasant cottages and highly cultivated shores, spreading into the broad intervale beyond to the village of Thun.

We have gotten at Thun into one of the great valleys of Switzerland. Two ridges of precipitous mountains, curving around the arc of a vast circle with its concavity toward the northward, extend almost fifty miles, parallel and rising about six thousand feet

above the valley between them, a depression some three miles wide. From the eastward comes out of the Alps the Aar through this depression, then proceeding westward it spreads into the elongated waters of Lake Brienz for nearly nine miles, the width varying from a mile to a mile and one-half. Then it enters the valley between the lakes which are two miles apart, and contains the town of Interlaken, and finally at about twenty feet lower level is the lake of Thun, while far away to the westward the Aar flows off between lower enclosing ridges toward Bern. The tourist usually takes a steamboat ride up the lake of Thun to Interlaken. As he emerges from the landing place at Thun, into the foot of the lake, there is seen a gorgeous view. This has been well described as extending "across the blue waters of the lake, across the narrow strip of orchard and vineyard on its shores, up to the oak forests, up to the pine forests, up to the bright green pastures dotted with châlets, up to the bare mountain sides, up to the belt of snow, up to the peaks of the Mönch, the Eiger and the Jungfrau in mid-air, up to the deep azure above."

The southern wall of this great valley is enclosed by the giant mountain range of the Oberland. Down through it come the deep tributary valleys of the Simme and the Kander, flanked by the cone-like summit of the Stockhorn, rising seventy-two hundred feet, and the higher pyramid of the Niesen, elevated nearly seventy-eight hundred feet. The Simmenthal is regarded as one of the most exquisite pastoral