196 THE MAMMOTH CAVE. 
their voices could no longer be heard, and in 
attempting to overtake them, fell and extin- 
guished her lamp, when she became so terrified 
at her situation that she swooned; and when 
discovered a few minutes afterward, and restored, 
she was found to be in a state of insanity, from 
which she did not recover for a number of years. 
The author of “ Rambles,” etc. quotes the 
following case from the author of “Calavar:” 
“In the Lower Branch is a room called the 
Salts Room, which produces considerable quan-_ 
tities of the sulphate of magnesia, or of soda, we 
forget which,—a mineral that the proprietor of 
the Cave did not fail to turn to account. The 
miner in question was a new, raw hand,—of 
course neither very well acquainted with the 
Cave itself, nor with the approved modes of 
averting or repairing accidents, to which, from 
the nature of their occupation, the miners were 
greatly exposed. Having been sent, one day, in 
charge of an older workman, to the Salts Room 
to dig a few sacks of the salt, and finding that 
the path to this sequestered nook was perfectly 
plain; and that, from the Haunted Chambers 
being a single continuous passage without 
branches, it was impossible to wander from it, 
our hero disdained, on his second visit, to seek or 
