They were on to the coffee, thick black espresso in tiny cups, a brown scum of fine grounds lying on its surface.

On the 28th, our voyagers found the sea to be in many places covered with a brown scum, such as the sailors usually call spawn.

"This is where the diners are," he said of the cloudy, medium-brown fluid with a topping of thick brown scum.

A decade ago, its bays were infamous for the telltale brown scum left along a yacht's waterline.

The Daphne was afloat on a bed of gray and brown scum that made the sea look like a cesspool.

A brown scum spiralled on the surface, and the smell off it was faintly animal, like the wet fur of a dog.

Great patches of brown scum and thick foam floated across the water.

He spat on the floor, missing a ceramic bowl filled almost to the brim with brown scum.

On the bridge a number of loafers were watching a curious brown scum that came drifting down the stream in patches.

It was crusted over by a dark brown scum that continually crumbled, broke and congealed again.