  We have measured the mass distribution in the central 35" = 1.7 kpc of the E5
galaxy NGC 3377. Stellar rotation velocity and velocity dispersion profiles
(seeing sigma_* = 0.20 - 0.56 arcsec) and V-band surface photometry (sigma_* =
0.20 - 0.26 arcsec) have been obtained with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope.
NGC 3377 is kinematically similar to M32: the central kinematic gradients are
steep. The apparent velocity dispersion rises from 95 +- 2 km/s at 1" <= r <=
4" to 178 +- 10 km/s at the center. To search for a central black hole, we
derive three-dimensional velocity and velocity dispersion fields that fit our
observations and Hubble Space Telescope surface photometry after projection and
seeing convolution. Isotropic models imply that the mass-to-light ratio rises
by a factor of ~ 4 at r < 2" to M/L_V > 10. If the mass-to-light ratio of the
stars is constant with radius, then NGC 3377 contains a central massive dark
object (MDO), probably a black hole, of mass (1.8 +- 0.8) x 10**8 M_Sun.
Several arguments suggest that NGC 3377 is likely to be nearly isotropic.
However, flattened, anisotropic maximum entropy models can fit the data without
an MDO. Therefore the MDO detection in NGC 3377 is weaker than those in M31,
M32, or NGC 3115. The above MDO mass is corrected for the E5 shape of the
galaxy and for the difference between velocity moments and velocities given by
Gaussian fits to the line profiles. We show that the latter correction does not
affect the strength of the MDO detection, but it slightly reduces the mass and
mass-to-light ratio. At 3" <= r <= 35", M/L_V is constant at ~ 2.4. Therefore
the inner parts of NGC 3377 are dominated by a normal old stellar population,
not by halo dark matter.
