OHAP.Vn. CUTANEOUS DISEASES — THE TWO PEAKS. 97 
seen on his lower extremities. With the exception of these 
monstrous formations, the skin of the boy was very clean and 
smooth. He was, however, squint-eyed in an unusual de- 
gree, and his sister, a little girl one or two years older, had 
the same deformity, but no cutaneous excrescences. The 
parents of these children, undoubtedly of pure Indian race, 
were of fine and healthy appearance. Other persons in 
the village, however, had the marks of cutaneous diseases. 
Cutaneous excrescences, like those just described, I saw 
at Granada. A young woman had them on the joints of her 
fingers. She applied to Dr. B. to have the horns cut 
off, and I was present when he tried to perform the opera- 
tion. Near the point the substance was without sensation, 
but as the doctor attempted to cut deeper and blood-vessels 
appeared, the patient declared that she could not bear the 
pain, and the attempt was abandoned. 
As far as I had an opportunity of examining the rocks 
of the island, they are formed of basaltic lava, like that of 
the isletas, which, as I have remarked, must have been 
produced by an eruption of the Mombacho. In the same 
manner the lava of Ometepe, together with the whole ma- 
terial of the island, must have been the production of the 
two craters by which the two cones of the island have been 
formed. In the beginning two separate islands must have 
existed here, till they were connected by the increasing 
mass and extent of the ejected matter, or were soldered 
together by a stream of lava. There is little land fit for 
cultivation. In most places the shores are steep and 
rocky, with no flats between them and the mountain sides. 
The soil capable of cultivation is formed by volcanic tuff, 
like that around Granada. Where this formation Borders 
on the lake, steep embankments and deep ravines are 
produced, some of the latter very similar to the fissures 
H 
