If you guessed "a bunch of cruise ship passengers'', you'd be wrong.

The correct answer is: "A eight-inch long centipede with a pair of needle-sharp jaws''.

The centipede was found by North Street resident Mr. Nelson Van Putten, who promptly coaxed it into a cardboard box before taking it to the Aquarium in a jar.

Experts there were glad to see the fearsome creature, because they needed one to display in their invertebrate house.

"I was window shopping on Queen Street and it happened to be in a little flower garden,'' said Mr. Van Putten.

"I was admiring a T-shirt at Riihiluomas and I noticed it crawling around.

"It's lucky no kids were playing around there because it would have bitten them.

"It's very active. It can move at 100 miles an hour, believe me!'' Head aquarist Mrs. Jennifer Gray-Conklin said centipedes were once confined to the East End, but were now found all over the Island.

"But I've certainly never heard of any being found in Hamilton, especially in a populated area.'' She guessed the centipede had been brought in with the flower bed soil while young and had then matured.

Five inches was an average length for the animals, she said, although they could reach 11 inches.

They liked to live under stones, foliage and in soil. "Because they do have a mild venom in their bite it's very painful, but it can't kill you.'' The creatures were otherwise helpful to people because they eat cockroaches, she added.

One theory is that centipedes arrived at the East End in equipment brought by soldiers previously stationed in the West Indies.

AMAZING FEET -- Mr. Nelson Van Putten with the centipede he says he found on Queen Street.