Meerschaum (help·info) is a soft white mineral sometimes foun floating on the Black Sea, and rather suggestive of sea-foam (German: Meerschaum), whence also the French name for the same substance, écume de mer. This is a false etymology however; the name actually deriving from the term mertscavon used by Levantine traders. It was termed sepiolite by E. F. Glocker, in allusion to its remote resemblance to the bone of the sepia or cuttlefish.