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Near the west end of Lake Thun, the river receives the waters of the Kander, which has just been joined by the Simme.

On flowing out of the lake it passes through Thun, and then flows through the city of Bern, passing beneath eighteen bridges and around the steeply-flanked peninsula on which the Old City is located.

The river soon changes its northwesterly flow for a due westerly direction, but after receiving the Saane or Sarine it turns north until it nears Aarberg.

There, in one of the major Swiss engineering feats of the 19th century, the Jura water correction, the river, which had previously rendered the countryside north of Bern a swampland through frequent flooding, was diverted by the Hagneck Canal into Lake of Bienne.

From the upper end of the lake the river issues through the Nidau-Büren channel and then runs east to Büren.

The lake absorbs huge amounts of eroded gravel and snowmelt that the river brings from the Alps, and the former swamps have become fruitful plains: they are known as the " vegetable garden of Switzerland ".