e00 to SpatialPolygons: how to set the correct projection

Please checkout the spTransform() command which allows you to  
reproject your sp objects (it is located in the rgdal package).

No. Your data are in a Lambert projection, probably lcc, but  
possibly laea, with the +lat_*= and +lon_0= arguments given. If 110  
is 110E, you are somewhere in Asia, but knowing how muddled things  
get, it may be 110W, so -110, and North or Central America. If you  
have access to rgdal, try reading the Arc binary vector data  
directly, the driver may pick up the projection automatically.

Thanks a lot for both hints! I got it ;)

I did this:

 > e00proj <- CRS(proj4string(readOGR(e00File, "ARC")))
 > e00proj
CRS arguments:
  +proj=lcc +lat_1=25 +lat_2=47 +lat_0=10 +lon_0=110 +x_0=0 +y_0=0  
+ellps=clrk66 +units=m +no_defs

 > NMG <- pal2SpatialPolygons(arcs, pal, IDs=IDs, proj4string = e00proj)
 > NMG <- spTransform(NMG, CRS("+proj=longlat +ellps=WGS84  
+datum=WGS84 +no_defs +towgs84=0,0,0"))


--Hans

**********************************************************
Hans-Joerg Bibiko
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Department of Linguistics
Deutscher Platz 6     phone:   +49 (0) 341 3550 341
D-04103 Leipzig       fax:     +49 (0) 341 3550 333
Germany               e-mail:  bibiko at eva.mpg.de