Birs

Birs, or Birse, a river which rises in the N. slope of the Jura about 5 miles from Bienne, flows through the Valley de Montier, and, after a course of 50 miles, joins the Rhine close to Basle. On its banks the Swiss suffered a severe defeat from the French in 1444, and in 1499 gained the crushing victory of Dornach over the Austrians. In June, 1891, the collapse of a bridge over this river caused one of the most disastrous railway accidents that has ever occurred in Switzerland.