  The increasing availability of high quality spectra of QSO absorption line
systems at resolutions of only a few km/s is expected to facilitate the
translation of the kinematics of components comprising the lines into the
spatial distribution of gas around an absorbing galaxy. In this Letter, we
present Hubble Space Telescope (HST) spectra of Q1219+047, a QSO whose
sightline passes 21 h-1 kpc from the center of M61, through the outer regions
of an extended H I disk. We detect complex Mg II absorption, spanning a
velocity range of approximately 300 km/s, and strong C IV absorption; these are
the first UV observations of a QSO absorption line system arising in the
outskirts of a disk of a nearby galaxy at low inclination. Our observations are
at odds with models of galaxies in which absorbing clouds co-rotate with a
galaxy's disk, because M61's low inclination should give rise to only a few Mg
II components spread over a small velocity range in such a model. Hence our
results throw doubt on whether absorption line profiles can be used to infer
the spatial distribution of gas around absorbing galaxies.
