I enjoyed Tom Watters' story of the Ohioans trespassing in North Carolina (USA). Some comments: If you were collecting directly under the bridge, or within the easement flanking it, and the road was maintained by county, state, or federal governments, then you really weren't trespassing. But it's a technicality, because most landowners wouldn't agree with this assessment. I have collected fossils at hundreds of sites in Alabama over the past ten years, and have only had trouble with two landowners. I have walked through the woods into people's back yards with no more result than a raised eyebrow. I never wear camouflage, which might be misinterpreted as hunters' gear, and I take the time to answer questions. In the Coastal Plain, landowners are usually interested in the fossils on their land and are glad that (at long last) the state is spending some tax money on them. With the men out in the fields and the women at home, the inhabitants seem to prefer that I meet the men outdoors. (Don't try this yourself. As a field geologist of the Geological Survey of Alabama, I am empowered to cross property lines without prior notice, something that even a policeman can't do without a warrant, unless he's in hot pursuit.) In the Appalachians, people are more suspicious, and a fair proportion of landowners are out of work. Here, it is best to check with people at their homes before crossing property lines. This does not make mapping the geology of a 50-square-mile area easier. I have never been ordered off anyone's land. I have been shot at exactly once. I was collecting trilobites in a small creek within the road easement near an Appalachian town, and I heard the baying of leashed hounds approaching at a walking pace long before the shot. The man hit a nearby tree dead center, spraying bark, and its accuracy showed that this was a warning shot. Still, I was affronted, considering that I was not actually trespassing, and especially since he didn't say a word to me. In fact, I never even saw him clearly. Later, a resident told me, "Oh, Mr. G shoots at everybody that goes on his property." Under the circumstances, it would not have mattered whether I came from Hokes Bluff or from Birmingham, Alabama or Ohio, nor whether I was on state property or private property as a legal nicety. I'd be dead right, eh? Good luck on future trips, Tom! And--Is it really more dangerous to collect in Ohio? Andrew K. Rindsberg Geological Survey of Alabama