  The MACHO Project is searching for galactic dark matter in the form of
massive compact halo objects (Machos). Millions of stars in the Large
Magellanic Cloud (LMC), Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), and Galactic bulge are
photometrically monitored in an attempt to detect rare gravitational
microlensing events caused by otherwise invisible Machos. Analysis of two years
of photometry on 8.5 million stars in the LMC reveals 8 candidate microlensing
events, far more than the $\sim1$ event expected from lensing by low-mass stars
in known galactic populations. From these eight events we estimate the optical
depth towards the LMC from events with $2 < \that < 200$ days to be
$\tau_2^{200} \approx 2.9 ^{+1.4}_{-0.9} \ten{-7}$. This exceeds the optical
depth of $0.5\ten{-7}$ expected from known stars and is to be compared with an
optical depth of $4.7\ten{-7}$ predicted for a ``standard'' halo composed
entirely of Machos. The total mass in this lensing population is $\approx
2^{+1.2}_{-0.7} \ten{11} \msun$ (within 50 kpc from the Galactic center). Event
timescales yield a most probable Macho mass of $0.5^{+0.3}_{-0.2}\msun$,
although this value is quite model dependent.
