BLAZE, _s._ A flame, the light of the flame; a white mark upon a horse. BLAZE, _v._ To blazon; to inflame; to fire. BLEAK, _s._ A small river fish. [Illustration] The bleak is seldom more than six inches long; the head is small, and the skull transparent; the eyes are large, with a blood coloured spot on the lower side; the irides of a pale yellow; the under jaw the longest; the gills silvery; the body is slender, greatly compressed sideways, not unlike that of the sprat: the back is green; the sides and belly silvery; the fins pellucid; the lateral line rather crooked; the scales are large, and fall off very easily; the tail is much forked. Some call the bleak the water swallow, on account of its nimbleness in catching flies; they are very restless, their haunts being sometimes in deep still water, at the sides and tails of streams, where the water shelves off, and makes a gentle eddy; at others in the streams, which may be observed by their swimming near the surface, and their very active manner of taking and diverting themselves with small flies, and insects. In angling for the bleak, the tackle must be very fine, with four or five small hooks, so placed above each other as not to entangle, and swimming by the assistance of a small quill float, rather deeper than mid-water, and baited variously, as with a gentle, bloodworm, caddis, the house-fly, (or any fly they are observed at the moment to feed upon,) and a very small bit of red paste, throwing in now and then some malt grains, or chewed bread, to keep them together; always remembering, wherever ground bait is used, it should be inferior to the hook-baits: thus two or three at a time may be taken, for they are so eager as to leap out of the water at the bait. Should the day be cold and cloudy, a single gentle, or cadis, upon the hook is then best, sunk about two foot under water. Another way of taking bleak is by whipping from a boat, or the bank-side in fresh streams, with a rod six feet, and a line twice as long, using an artificial black gnat, a fly of a very sad brown colour, or the small dace-flies; they not only yield much sport, but are very instructive to the young fly-fisher.—_Daniel._ BLEED, _v._ To lose blood; to run with blood; to drop as blood; to let blood.