In response to the Aug 20 posting by Vadim, I had the same issue with all kinds of complaints about row.names when it was not given in the read.table command; when it was set to NULL (data were actually shifted to the wrong names). I believe the problem was no comma (or specified delimiter) at the end of the first row with the names in it. Don't know why, but in comparing two programs, one working one not, this is the only difference. Would be nice if it were more robust...thanks. Yetta Yetta Jager Environmental Sciences Division Oak Ridge National Laboratory P.O. Box 2008, MS 6036 Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6036 USA For packages, please replace "P.O. Box 2008" with "Bethel Valley Road". OFFICE: 865/574-8143 FAX: 865/576-3989 Work email: jagerhi at ornl.gov Home email: jagerhi at chartertn.net My webpage: http://www.esd.ornl.gov/~zij/ Fish and Wildlife Modelling: http://www.esd.ornl.gov/research/ecol_management/fish_wildlife_modeling