  The Faint Object Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope was used to
obtain spectra of the central region of M87. These spectra cover the wavelength
range 1140 - 1606 Angstrom and have a resolution of about 1 Angstrom. The
nuclear continuum is clearly visible in the spectra. The only strong line that
is observed is Ly-alpha, which has a velocity width of about 3000 km/sec. There
is also a marginal detection of C IV 1549. The ratio of Ly-alpha to C IV in the
nuclear spectrum is at least a factor of 2 higher than in a spectrum taken at a
position on the disk about 0.6" away from the nucleus by Dopita et al. This
enhancement of Ly-alpha at the nucleus could point to significant differences
in the properties of the emitting gas and/or the excitation mechanism between
the outer and inner disk regions. The strength of the observed Ly-alpha places
limits on the properties of the absorbing gas present within M87. For instance,
if the hydrogen column at the systemic velocity of M87 is greater than about
10^18 cm^{-2} then it can cover only a small fraction of the line emitting
region. Spectra separated by 5 days show a 60% difference in the Ly-alpha flux,
but the same continuum level. This could be due to either a displacement
between the aperture positions for the two sets of observations, or it could be
due to intrinsic variability of the source. The current observations do not
strongly favor either of these alternatives. The observations do show, however,
that the Ly-alpha line is a useful tracer of kinematics in the M87 nucleus.
