i66 
SCENERY OF SWITZERLAND. 
placed. The strata composing it are inverted; the 
most ancient being at the top. 
But though, no doubt, the Lakes of Brienz and 
of Thun at one time formed a single lake, they 
are of a totally different character. The Lake of 
Brienz occupies, as we have seen, a longitudinal 
valley. 
On the other hand, the Lake of Thun is for the 
most part a transverse valley of erosion. Fig. 126 
gives a section across the Justithal, between St. Beaten- 
berg and Sigriswyl, which, as will be seen, is an 
anticlinal valley. The mountains on the South side 
show remarkable contortions, and appear to have 
been subjected to pressure acting from different 
directions. 
The lower end of the Lake of Thun is dammed 
up, at anyrate in part, by the deposits of the Simmen 
and the Kander. There is a curious point connected 
with the exit of the river Simmen (Simmenthal) from 
the mountains near Simmis. Instead of following the 
low ground between the Stockhorn (Jurassic) and the 
Niesen (Eocene), it has cut a gorge through the end 
of the former, detaching the Burgfluh (Jurassic) from 
the rest of the Stockhorn, of which evidently it 
formed originally a part. It is probable that this is 
