Low-resolution spectra from 3000–9000 Å of young low-mass stars and brown dwarfs were obtained with LRIS on Keck I .
The excess UV and optical emission arising in the Balmer and Paschen continua yields mass accretion rates ranging from 2 \times 10 ^ { -12 } to 10 ^ { -8 } M _ { \odot } yr ^ { -1 } .
These results are compared with HST /STIS spectra of roughly solar-mass accretors with accretion rates that range from 2 \times 10 ^ { -10 } to 5 \times 10 ^ { -8 } M _ { \odot } yr ^ { -1 } .
The weak photospheric emission from M-dwarfs at < 4000 Å leads to a higher contrast between the accretion and photospheric emission relative to higher-mass counterparts .
The mass accretion rates measured here are systematically \sim 4 - 7 times larger than those from H \alpha emission line profiles , with a difference that is consistent with but unlikely to be explained by the uncertainty in both methods .
The accretion luminosity correlates well with many line luminosities , including high Balmer and many He i lines .
Correlations of the accretion rate with H \alpha 10 % width and line fluxes show a large amount of scatter .
Our results and previous accretion rate measurements suggest that \dot { M } \propto M ^ { 1.87 \pm 0.26 } for accretors in the Taurus Molecular Cloud .