18 THE SEA SCUM AND ITS NATURE. 
THE SEA SCUM AND ITS NATURE, 
BY 
BEN RY) Ok Yew 
THosE who have occasion to reside along our sea-board at this 
season of the year are unpleasantly aware of the proximity of 
the sea by reason of an almost overpowering odour suggestive 
of the presence of something very bad. This odour is found to 
emanate from a certain greenish-coloured film, of greater or less 
thickness, which is left on the shore by the receding tide, as also 
perhaps from patches of a scum-like substance of a brownish- 
green colour floating on the water, as the matter of this film 
appears before it becomes stranded. This state of things which 
has been very marked lately in the Bay and all up the coast— 
as far as Townsville at least—is no isolated occurrence, but 
always to be met with to some extent during the prevalence of 
the strong winds which blow from the ocean, where, too, the same 
scum willalso be observed covering large uninterrupted tracts or 
smaller areas separated by greater or less intervals of sea un- 
occupied by it, during many hours of the day. Moreover, it was 
noted as occurring in Moreton Bay by Mr. J.D. MacDonald, a 
naval surgeon, nearly thirty years since. [Roy. Soc. Proceed- 
ings, Feb. 26, 1857.] Neither is it peculiar to Queensland 
waters, for prior to Mr. MacDonald’s observation the occurrence 
of similar floating matter was reported off Cape Leeuwin 
(Darwin—“ Journal of Researches, &c.,” Ed. 1884, p.14). And 
more recently Mr. George Francis has entered somewhat fully 
into the salient features of a ‘scum’—apparently identical with 
