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 



