ving,
and carries on the dyeing and printing of the fabric, and the
manufacture of sugar. There are a chamber of commerce and a board of
trade-arbitration. The town was enthusiastic in the cause of the
Reformed Religion in the 16th century, and still contains many
Protestants. It was burned almost to the ground in 1765.

BOLE (Gr. [Greek: bolos], "a clod of earth"), a clay-like substance of
red, brown or yellow colour, consisting essentially of hydrous aluminium
silicate, with more or less iron. Most bole differs from ordinary clay
in not being plastic, but in dropping to pieces when placed in water,
thus behaving rather like fuller's-earth. Bole was formerly in great
repute medicinally, the most famous kind being the Lemnian Earth
([Greek: gae Laemnia]), from the Isle of Lemnos in the Greek
Archipelago. The earth was dug with much ceremony only once a year, and
having been mixed with goats' blood was made into little cakes or balls,
which were stamped by the priests, whence they became known as _Terra
sigillata_ ("sealed earth"). Large quantities of bole occur as red
partings between the successive lava flows of the Tertiary volcanic
series in the north of Ireland and the west of Scotland. Here it seems
to have resulted from the decomposition of the basalt and kindred rocks
by meteoric agencies, during periods of volcanic repose. In Antrim the
bole is associated with lithomarge, bauxite and pisolitic iron-ore. Bole
occurs in like manner between the great sheets of the Deccan traps in
India; and a similar substance is also found interbedded with some of
the doleritic lavas of Etna.

In the sense of stem or trunk of a tree, "bole" is from the O. Norwegian
_bolr_, of. Ger. _Bohle_, plank. It is probably connected with the large
number of words, such as "boll," "ball," "bowl," &c., which stand for a
round object.

BOLESLAUS I., called "The Great," king of Poland (d. 1025), was the son
of Mieszko, first Christian prince of Poland, and the Bohemian princess
Dobrawa, or Bona, whose chaplain, Jordan, converted the court from
paganism to Catholicism. He succeeded his father in 992. A born warrior,
he speedily raised the little struggling Polish principality on the
Vistula to the rank of a great power. In 996 he gained a seaboard by
seizing Pomerania, and subsequently took advantage of the troubles in
Bohemia to occupy Cracow, previously a Czech city. Like his
contemporaries, Stephen of Hungary and Canute of Denma