'Sometime in 1906, butterfly hunter Albert Stewart Meek disembarks from an old pearler named 'Hekla' on the north-east coast of New Guinea. He unloads his provisions and tools of trade: killing bottles with cyanide of potassium for small insects, syringes with acetic acid for larger ones, non-rusting pins for setting his trophies, cork-lined collecting cases. He waves off the boat with instructions to the skipper to return for him in three months.' (Publication abstract)