[X4U] Incremental backup and Apple Backup question

[Michael Elliott]

I have a question that I can't seem to find on Apple's support threads.

I have an external Firewire drive that is backed up to each night.  
The primary backup is around 40 GIG, and each of the daily,  
incremental backups is anywhere from a few hundred K to several megs.

If I want to save space, can I delete backups from a few weeks ago  
(leaving the primary/original backup file in place), but still leave  
the more recent incremental backup files in place? I guess what I  
mean is, are these incremental backup files like segmented Stuffit  
files in that, if one is gone, the backups won't work?

Thanks!

Michael