LONG-TERM SURVIVAL OF MICROORGANISMS IN FROZEN MATERIAL FROM EARLY ANTARCTIC BASE CAMPS AT MCMURDO SOUND

Plate counts were made of bacteria surviving in materials from Shackle ton's and Scott's camps from the first decade of this century. Several millions of bacteria per g of material were detected in samples of po ny dung and lesser numbers in dried peas, pearl barley, chaff and stra w. No coliforms had survived in the dung: apparent positives in the pr esumptive coliform counts proved to be sporing Bacillus spp. when test ed in a confirmatory coliform test. Subsamples of the colonies growing on agar plates all proved to be either Bacillus spp. producing endosp ores or actinomycetes (Micromonospora spp.) with single spores along t he hyphae.