In the spring of 1839 a large female panther is said to have been
trapped there, and an end made of her young family. Several bears, too,
had been surprised inside the Den, for the place presented great
attractions as a secure retreat from winter cold. But the story that
most interested us was a tradition that somewhere in the recesses of the
cave the notorious Androscoggin Indian Adwanko had hidden a bag of
silver money that he had received from the French for the scalps of
white settlers.
The entrance to the cave fronts the pond near the foot of a precipitous
mountain, called the Fall-off. A wilder locality, or one of more
sinister aspect, can hardly be imagined. The cave is not spacious
within; it is merely a dark hole among great granite rocks. By means of
a lantern or torch you can penetrate to a distance of seventy feet or
more.
One day when three of us boys had gone to Overset Pond to fish for trout
we plucked up our courage and crawled into it. We crept along for what
seemed to us a great distance till we found the passage obstructed by a
rock that had apparently fallen from overhead. We could move the stone a
little, but we did not dare to tamper with it much, for fear that other
stones from above would fall.
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