1872-82 THE ‘PLEASURES OF THE CHASE’ 239 
generally liberally responded to, and a large 
variety of specimens was frequently sent to him. 
These miscellaneous contributions he kept in 
memory, and as occasions offered, pieced together. 
Sometimes years elapsed before he had received 
sufficient material to afford him conclusive proof 
of the facts at which he had perhaps long ago 
arrived by induction. Threads had often to be 
dropped which he had no opportunity of picking 
up again for long intervals of time. But when 
some missing link arrived, it was at once utilised 
in the construction of the extinct animals on 
which he was patiently engaged. 
In this lecture at the Royal Colonial Institute 
he spoke of the ‘ absorbing pleasures of the chase,’ 
which these pursuits afforded him, and declared that 
‘ in the sporting world there was no hunt that was 
so exciting, so full of interest, and so satisfactory, 
when events prove one to have been on the right 
scent, as that of a huge beast which no eye will 
ever see alive, and which, perhaps, no mortal eye 
ever did behold. Such a chase is not ended in a 
day, in a week, nor in a season. One’s interest 
is revived and roused year by year, as bit by bit of 
the petrified portions of the skeleton comes to 
hand. Thirty such years elapsed before I was able 
to outline a restoration of Diprotodon aztstralis.' 
Sometimes, however, other materials than 
extinct fossil remains were submitted to Owen 
