  We present Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) and Space Telescope
Imaging Spectrograph observations of the weak interstellar N I doublet at 1160
Angstroms toward 17 high-density sight lines [N(Htot)>=10^21 cm^-2]. When
combined with published data, our results reveal variations in the fractional N
I abundance showing a systematic deficiency at large N(Htot). At the FUSE
resolution (~20 km s^-1), the effects of unresolved saturation cannot be
conclusively ruled out, although O I at 1356 Angstroms shows little evidence of
saturation. We investigated the possibility that the N I variability is due to
the formation of N_2 in our mostly dense regions. The 0-0 band of the c'_4
^1Sigma^+_u - X ^1Sigma^+_g transition of N_2 at 958 Angstroms should be easily
detected in our FUSE data; for 10 of the denser sight lines, N_2 is not
observed at a sensitivity level of a few times 10^14 cm^-2. The observed N I
variations are suggestive of an incomplete understanding of nitrogen chemistry.
  Based on observations made with the NASA-CNES-CSA Far Ultraviolet
Spectroscopic Explorer, which is operated for NASA by the Johns Hopkins
University under NASA contract NAS 5-32985, and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space
Telescope, obtained from the Multimission Archive at the Space Telescope
Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for
Research in Astronomy, Inc., under the NASA contract NAS 5-26555.
