In 1892, Perkins stepped off the boat in Honolulu and with the enthusiasm and determination of great explorers, climbed into the Islands' forests to find his quarry: beautiful, rare birds, delicate flies and tiny land snails. His particular love was for butterflies.

Neal Evanhuis is chairman of Natural Sciences at the Bishop Museum and author of "Barefoot on Lava: The Journals and Correspondence of Naturalist R.C.L. Perkins in Hawai'i, 1892-1901" (Bishop Museum Press, $29.95). Find out about Perkins and see the Islands as they looked more than a century ago when Evanhuis presents an illustrated travelogue of Perkins' adventures at 5 p.m. Oct. 25 at the Kona Historical Society meeting at Kalukalu, South Kona.