This first glimpse of the great northern island so fascinated Breeze that he could not take his eyes off the distant spot of glistening whiteness. It seemed too wonderful to be true, that he, a poor fisher-lad, should be about to visit the mysterious land of fire and snow that the majority of travellers consider to be far beyond their limit of time and money. He thought over all that he knew or had ever heard of Iceland, and found that it was very little indeed. He knew that it was an island, that it contained icy glaciers, smoking volcanoes, vast deserts of broken lava, and was noted for its geysers, though he had no clear idea of what a geyser was or even looked like. He had heard that Mount Hecla was the principal volcano of the island, and he wondered if the distant white object at which he was gazing might not be it. This was about all that Breeze could remember concerning this wonderful country, and I do not believe that many of the readers of this story know any more about it than he did. Do you? [Illustration: THE FIRST VIEW OF ICELAND.] After gazing long through his glass at the snow-topped mountain they were approaching, and carefully studying his chart, Captain Coffin said it was not Mount Hecla, but must be the Snäfell Jökull, or mountain, near the end of the long narrow promontory of Snäfells (snow-hills). This projects from the western coast of the island, and separates the two great bays, or fiords, of Breda on the north and Faxa on the south. Although the halibut grounds, for which the _Fish-hawk_ was bound, lie on the northern side of the island, while Reykjavik (pronounced Rike-ya-veek), the capital, is situated at the head of Faxa Fiord, in the south-western corner, Captain Coffin determined to run in there and have a look at the place before beginning work. Besides having a desire to see something of the capital city and the people of this out-of-the-way corner of the world, the schooner’s supply of fresh water was running short, and he was anxious to replenish it. While Breeze is still gazing at the Snäfell Jökull, and Captain Coffin is altering his schooner’s course a point more to the southward, so as to fetch the light-house on Cape Reykjaines (smoking cape), let us take a sort of a general look at the curious island, and see if we can find out any more about it than these Yankee fishermen knew.