V-BAND AND I-BAND OBSERVATIONS OF THE HALO OF NGC-5907

Using long exposures taken in the V and I bands with a 4096x4096 pixel CCD array at the prime focus of the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope, w e have confirmed the discovery by Sackett et al. (1994) of a flat, fai nt luminous halo around the edge-on Sc galaxy NGC 5907. This halo is r edder than the disk. Its nature is still an observational challenge. W e suggest however that its color can only be accounted for by stars le ss massive than 0.8 M.. Their total mass in NGC 5907 is very uncertain , but it might possibly account for the excess dynamical mass in this galaxy. Alternatively their distribution might trace the dark potentia l without contributing significantly to the mass. We give upper limits to the extinction by an hypothetical dust in the halo.