masses many tons in weight. Usually
they are somewhat oblong, and often they possess a flat side or "sole";
they may be angular, sub-angular, or well rounded, and, if they are hard
rocks, they frequently bear grooves and scratches caused by contact with
other rocks while held firmly in the moving ice. Like the clay in which
they are borne, the boulders belong to districts over which the ice has
travelled; in some regions they are mainly limestones or sandstones; in
others they are granite, basalts, gneisses, &c.; indeed, they may
consist of any hard rock. By the nature of the contained boulders it is
often possible to trace the path along which a vanished ice-sheet moved;
thus in the Glacial drift of the east coast of England many Scandinavian
rocks can be recognized.

With the exception of foraminifera which have been found in the boulder
clay of widely separated regions, fossils are practically unknown; but
in some maritime districts marine shells have been incorporated with the
clay. See GLACIAL PERIOD; and GLACIER.

BOULE (Gr. [Greek: boulae], literally "will," "advice"; hence a
"council"), the general term in ancient Greece for an advisory council.
In the loose Homeric state, as in all primitive societies, there was a
council of this kind, probably composed of the heads of families, i.e.
of the leading princes or nobles, who met usually on the summons of the
king for the purpose of consultation. Sometimes, however, it met on its
own initiative, and laid suggestions before the king. It formed a means
of communication between the king and the freemen assembled in the
Agora. In Dorian states this aristocratic form of government was
retained (for the Spartan Council of Elders see GEROUSIA). In Athens the
ancient council was called the Boule until the institution of a
democratic council, or committee of the Ecclesia, when, for purposes of
distinction, it was described as "the Boule on the Areopagus," or, more
shortly, "the Areopagus" (q.v.). It must be clearly understood that the
second, or Solonian Boule, was entirely different from the Areopagus
which represented the Homeric Council of the King throughout Athenian
history, even after the "mutilation" carried out by Ephialtes. Further,
it is, as will appear below, a profound mistake to call the second Boule
a "senate." There is no real analogy between the Roman senate and the
Athenian council of Five Hundred.

Before describing the Athenian Boule, the only one