  We have found that the bulge of the large, nearby Sb galaxy NGC 7331 rotates
retrograde to its disk. Analysis of spectra in the region of the near-IR Ca II
triplet along the major axis shows that, in the radial range between 5'' and
~20'', the line of sight velocity distribution of the absorption lines has two
distinct peaks, and can be decomposed into a fast-rotating component with
v/sigma > 3, and a slower rotating, retrograde component with v/sigma between 1
-- 1.5. The radial surface brightness profile of the counter-rotating component
follows that of the bulge, obtained from a 2-dimensional bulge-disk
decomposition of a near-infrared K-band image, while the fast rotating
component follows the disk. At the radius where the disk starts to dominate the
isophotes change from being considerably boxy to very disky.
  Although a number of spiral galaxies have been found that contain cold,
couter-rotating disks, this is the first galaxy known to have a boxy, probably
triaxial, fairly warm, counter-rotating component, which is dominating in the
central regions. If it is a bar seen end-on, this bar has to be thicker than
the disk. We find that NGC 7331, even though it is a fairly early-type spiral,
does not have a conventional, co-rotating bulge. The fact that the inner
component is retrograde makes us believe that it was formed from infalling
material, in either stellar or gaseous form (e.g. Balcells & Quinn 1990).
Another possibility however is that the structure has been there since the
formation of the galaxy. In this case it will be a challenge to explain the
large change in orientation of the angular momentum when going outward
radially.
