diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index bdf3f39e6e4..7d0fc7321c2 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -216,6 +216,7 @@ Release 0.2.0
                expecting IllegalStateException
    HBASE-766   FileNotFoundException trying to load HStoreFile 'data'
    HBASE-770   Update HBaseRPC to match hadoop 0.17 RPC
+   HBASE-780   Can't scan '.META.' from new shell
    
   IMPROVEMENTS
    HBASE-559   MR example job to count table rows
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HTableDescriptor.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HTableDescriptor.java
index 58618266e99..eeb26b5fcc5 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HTableDescriptor.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HTableDescriptor.java
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ public class HTableDescriptor implements WritableComparable {
    * Private constructor used internally creating table descriptors for 
    * catalog tables: e.g. .META. and -ROOT-.
    */
-  private HTableDescriptor(final byte [] name, HColumnDescriptor[] families) {
+  protected HTableDescriptor(final byte [] name, HColumnDescriptor[] families) {
     this.name = name.clone();
     setMetaFlags(name);
     for(HColumnDescriptor descriptor : families) {
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/UnmodifyableHTableDescriptor.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/UnmodifyableHTableDescriptor.java
index 78c4b1430a6..cb7f2809093 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/UnmodifyableHTableDescriptor.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/UnmodifyableHTableDescriptor.java
@@ -36,10 +36,21 @@ public class UnmodifyableHTableDescriptor extends HTableDescriptor {
    * @param desc
    */
   UnmodifyableHTableDescriptor(final HTableDescriptor desc) {
-    super(desc.getName());
+    super(desc.getName(), getUnmodifyableFamilies(desc));
+  }
+  
+  /*
+   * @param desc
+   * @return Families as unmodifiable array.
+   */
+  private static HColumnDescriptor[] getUnmodifyableFamilies(
+      final HTableDescriptor desc) {
+    HColumnDescriptor [] f = new HColumnDescriptor[desc.getFamilies().size()];
+    int i = 0;
     for (HColumnDescriptor c: desc.getFamilies()) {
-      super.addFamily(new UnmodifyableHColumnDescriptor(c));
+      f[i++] = c;
     }
+    return f;
   }
 
   /**