Foerste. ] 
406 
[April 6, 
throw doubt upon the theory that cirques are located by cracks or 
faults. No cirque in the Bernese Jura surpasses that of Court 
in the beauty and symmetry of its development. At its south- 
ern end the strata are unequally eroded. In the southern part 
of the cirque , between the 652 and 642.36 meter levels on the 
road traversing the same, may be seen three courses of rock 
crossing the stream, and forming part of its bed. Moreover 
both south and north of the bridge at the 594.79 meter level at 
the northern end of the cirque the correspondence of the strata 
on the east and west side of the stream can be readily seen. 
Now there are several cases in which a break in the continuity 
of the strata on either side of the stream might be predicated. 
The best one of these is near the southern end of the cirque. 
Here, on the west side of the stream at the 980 meter level on 
the cliff indicated on the topographical map, is a case of fault and 
thrust in the cliff, especially well shown near the top. On the east 
side there are also evidences of faultings apparently of a smaller 
nature ; but there is also quite a fold here for which there is not 
a parallel in the strata on the west side. In all such cases, how- 
ever, it must be remarked that when strata on opposite sides of 
streams are separated from each other several hundred feet by 
the eroded intermediate valley (and often for several hundred 
yards near the middle of these cirques ) it is not possible to draw 
very definite conclusions unless the discordance be very great. 
For instance in the case just described, the small fold on the 
east side of the cirque may compensate for part of the faulting and 
thrusting on the west side, and had the strata appeared in their 
continuity across the valley, it might appear that the twisting 
and faulting all took place along the direction parallel to the 
axis of the fold, but that there was no break transverse to 
the same. Indeed in any case where the surfaces of strata are 
exposed over any considerable area it may be readily seen that 
the strata composing the folds have been subjected to many 
local irregularities of folding and twisting whose importance 
must not be magnified. The Moutier cirque , although smaller, 
is if anything still more charming, at least for the geologist, for 
here the correspondence of the strata on opposite sides of the 
valley is not only seen in the field but receives its expression in 
the excellent published topographical map of this region. There 
is a marked correspondence of the strata at the south end^ of 
