Berne

the capital of Canton Berne and of the Swiss Confederacy. Elevation, 1,710 feet above the sea. The city is built on a peninsula of sandstone rock occupying a loop of the river Aar. The chief streets run east and west. The bear, the heraldic emblem of Canton Berne, is in evidence everywhere. Stone bears guard the gate by which one enters the town. Bruin in stone and bruin in wood is the everywhere recurring ornament of the public buildings and fountains. A long, narrow street leads eastward through the town, lined on either side with a continuous wall of shops and houses. The second stories project into the streets until they almost meet, forming a covered arcade on either side through which foot passengers take their way. At its eastern extremity, the street crosses the Aar on a stone bridge which brings one to the bear garden, where an assemblage of captive brown bears of all sizes and ages tumble about contentedly, walk erect, make their manners, and climb for the edification of spectators. A whole troop of wooden bears perform at the clock tower. As the time for striking the hour approaches, a wooden cock flaps its wings and crows; and wooden bears march gracefully around a seated figure of a bearded old man. The old man turns an hour glass in his hand and counts off the hour by raising his scepter and opening his mouth. The leader of the bears counts off the hour with nods of his head, while a stone figure in the tower above strikes on a bell with a hammer. The wooden cock concludes the performance by crowing. No child of Berne can be expected to proceed on an errand if it be near the time for the clock to strike.

A fine old Gothic cathedral contains a number of pieces of sculpture, stained windows, and carved work. The historical museum contains large cabinets of antiquities from the lake dwellings and the tombs of Switzerland, showing in detail the weapons and implements used by primitive man in the stone, in the bronze, and in the iron age. There are large collections of armor, spears, and other weapons, with the field altar taken by the Swiss from Charles the Bold of Burgundy, the time they trounced him at Grandson. A natural history museum possesses immense collections of minerals, including magnificent Swiss crystals and specimens of the smoky topaz, fossils, birds, eggs, mounted chamois and other Swiss animals, fishes, and insects.

When one has seen the curiosities of the museum and the bear garden, the streets themselves and the people are a never-ending source of interest. The stone paving of the old arcades is worn into deep furrows by the travel of centuries. Flights of steps rising into quaint old shops have been worn until they present mere polished slopes. The citizens of Berne are proud of their new government buildings and pleasure resorts and drives, but the visitor delights most in the old part of the town with its arcades, old-fashioned inns, and curio shops, where he is tempted to invest in crystals, gems, inlaid work, carved platters, canes, wooden bears, and carved chamois, not to mention ribbons and a thousand knick-knacks offered as souvenirs.

On a clear day the terraces of the city command a magnificent view of the Bernese overland. Even in midsummer the snow clad peaks, thirty or more, present a glorious spectacle. At eventide, after the lengthening shadows have extended across the valleys and the last rays of the lingering sun have faded from the peaks, these far-away mountains sometimes begin to brighten from their bases upward, as though illuminated by a rosy light from inside, presenting the wonderful alpine glow of which travelers speak so rapturously.

The modern city has quite outgrown the old walls; manufactories of woolens, cottons, silks, machinery, and chocolate have become established, and a considerable trade is carried on with the surrounding cantons. The present population is about 75,000. See Switzerland