The ROSAT PSPC spectrum of NGC 6251 can be fitted with either a multiple‐component model obscured by the gas column within our Galaxy or by a single power‐law component obscured by this Galactic gas and an additional columnN=1.3×1021cm−2. We have used the VLA to search for the the HI line in absorption towards the radio core of NGC 6251 to set limits on the total X‐ray absorbing column. We find marginal evidence for a weak, broad, absorption feature associated with NGC 6251 which could provide the extra HI column suggested by the simpler X‐ray spectral fit. ©1994 American Institute of Physics