Traces of Troglodytes. 297 



One narrow passage leads to a dark and gloomy 

 room, about eight feet by twelve in dimension, 

 which is still known as Queen Esther's room. 

 Her royal highness was a talented woman of much 

 influence with the Indians, and during her frequent 

 journeys from Philadelphia to the Six Nations, in 

 New York, made this cave one of her halting- 

 places. So runs the story at least. However all 

 this may be, the Indians made good use of the 

 cave and left abundant evidences of their one-time 

 presence. The name of the locality in the Dela- 

 ware tongue, Pechot-woalenk, signifies where 

 there is a great depression in the ground, and 

 obviously refers to this cave. The whole sur- 

 rounding region is beautiful, and the Indians who 

 possessed the land were over-generous, it seems, 

 in allotting it to the Shawnees, who occupied it 

 from 1680 to 1727. 



There are other caves that have been found to 

 contain Indian relics, but not perhaps in such a 

 manner as to clearly evidence that the red man 

 himself was a dweller therein. Floods may have 

 carried them and swept from villages elsewhere 

 the spears, bone implements, and beads that have 



