  We present the results of near-infrared imaging and low-resolution near-
infrared spectroscopy of low mass objects in the NGC 1333 molecular cloud. A
JHK survey of an 11.4' x 11.7' area of the northern cluster was conducted to a
sensitivity of K < 16 mag. Using near-infrared magnitudes and colors from this
and previously published surveys, twenty-five brown dwarf candidates were
selected toward the high extinction cloud core. Spectra in the K band were
obtained and comparisons of the depths of water vapor absorption bands in our
candidate objects with a grid of dwarf,subgiant, and giant standards were made
to derive spectral types. These data were then used to derive effective
temperatures and stellar luminosities which, when combined with theoretical
tracks and isochrones for pre-main sequence objects, resulted in estimates for
their masses and ages. The models suggest a median age for the sample of < 1
Myr with substellar masses for at least 9 of the candidates including the x-ray
flare source ASR 24. Surface gravities have been estimated for the brown dwarf
candidates and, for a given spectral type,found to resemble more closely dwarfs
than giants. Using the near-infrared imaging data and age estimates from the
spectroscopic sample, an extinction-limited sample in the northern cluster was
defined. Consistent with recent studies of other young clusters, this sample
exhibits an accretion disk frequency of 0.75 +-0.20 and a mass spectrum slope
across the hydrogen-burning limit of alpha < 1.6 where dN/dM ~ M^-(alpha).
