I have received the fix directly from Jinn-Guey Lay (thanks very much) and it works. I am now going to test some code I wrote to join the lines together. Best Regards -- Garth Tier, Centre for Arid Zone Research, CSIRO Division of Wildlife & Ecology, PO Box 2111 or Heath Road Alice Springs, NT, 0871, Australia. Tel (089) 524255; Fax (089) 529587 Email tie013 at its.csiro.au