park-labourers who were
mowing the grass close by, and divers members of the British public,
from the piscatorial street arab with his minnow-ensnaring thread and
bent pin to the portly merchant wending Citywards, were soon on the
spot, and really that diminutive reptile caused more consternation than
would have been the case had it been instead an Anarchist bomb. I sent
over to the cricket pavilion for a tin canister wherein to cage _pro
tem._ the wily stranger, and excitement waxed high as preparations were
made to accomplish the fearsome feat. This was safely managed by the aid
of a newspaper, which naturally enough, considering the events of the
week, proved to be of a sporting character, and the viper, probably
anxious as to the result of the Oaks, glided to the column containing
that news, whence it was expeditiously shaken into the canister, which I
perforated at the top, and walked off with my tinned snake to the
Zoological Gardens hard by, where its roaming propensities were kept in
check within the walls of the reptile house.

I was somewhat startled to learn that my captive had not escaped from
the Gardens, which did not contain one of its species, and Mr. Bartlett
gave it as his opinion that there must have been a number more wherever
this one came from. This new danger further enhanced the charms of
Regent's Park, which on Saturdays is a perfect pandemonium, the
pedestrian having to exert a great deal of agility to dodge the whizzing
cricket balls and avoid being maimed for life. Now that we have had
snakes in the grass we may expect vultures in the air, and who knows
that in time to come we may not be shooting big game in the jungles of
the north-west!

The above is the substance of a letter I wrote to the _Times_, the
publication of which caused no little consternation in some papers and
no little chaff, at my expense, in others. The London evening papers
appeared with startling contents bills and sensational headings:

"_LIKA-JOKO, THE SERPENT HUNTER._"

"SNAKES IN REGENTS PARK!"

"THE TALE OF THE SERPENT," "SNAKES ALIVE!" &c.

The _Westminster Gazette_, "In the hope of gleaning some valuable
information about this newly-discovered fearful reptile which lies in
wait for wayfarers in the wilds of Northern London," sent a
representative post-haste to interview Mr. Bartlett, the superintendent
of the Zoological Gardens. This report in the _Westminster_ is headed:

"He thought