The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-30 00:00:00

The Price of Gold.

The quotation of gold at Paris is about 4 per mille pm., and
the short exchange on London is 25.20 per £1 sterling. On
comparing these rates with the English Mint price of £3
17s. 100. per ounce for standard gold, it appears that gold is
about 3-10ths per cent. dearer in London than in Paris.
By advices from Hamburg the price of gold is 4231 per ;nark
and the short exchange on London is 13.5 per £1 stifling.
,tandard gold at the English Mint price is, therefore, rather
more than 3-10ths per cent. dearer in London than in Ham-
burg.
file course of exchange at New York on London for bills at
60 days' sight is 1761 per cent., and the premium on gold is
about 2i per cent. At these rates there is no profit on the
importation of gold from the United States.

LAND SLIPS.—It rained for twenty-four hours
heavily, on Sunday, the twelfth of July, and there
were several landslips about the Shotover and Arrow
River. At a place called Butcher's Point, on the Shot •
over, a party of seven were living together in a hut, on
the mountain side, a little above the river. Six were
sleeping, and one was outside, looking out for the boulders
that every now and then came thundering down from
above. Then, all on a sudden, at about three o'clock in
the morning, away went the whole hill-side, carrying with
it the hut and the doomed six into the river. Nothing has
been seen of them since ; the man on watch was left stand-
ing unhurt. A man living on the Arrow River came out-
side his tent about the middle of the same night, when a
landslip took his tent to where he will never see it again,
but it did not touch him. An enormous amount of damage
has been done on both rivers ; several poor fellows who lost
all else in the flood, had to run for their lives.—Dickens's
All the Fear Round."

FEROCITY
OF THE SWAN.—Yesterday the pro-
prietors of Wombweli's menagerie, at present ex-
hibiting in the grounds of the Crystal Palace, released two
fine
pelicans with the humane intention of allowing them a
swim on the lake as a refresher before the arrival of the
visitors. Two of the company's swans, however, whose
rights had been thus unceremoniously invaded, made a
desperate attack upon therm, the encounter commencing
with a collision between the "feather-clads," with all sails
set, the force of which fairly made each rebound. Singling
out the smaller pelican, the two swans belaboured him with
their wings and bills with a ferocity and formidableness that
was truly surprising. The contest lasted upwards of 20
minutes, and would, doubtless, have ended fatally to the
pelican but for the timely arrival of a keeper, who succeeded,
by means of a canoe, in rescuing him with a broken wing
and well nigh exhausted, having been held under water, by
the joint efforts of the swans, for about 10 minutes. Exas•
perated at losing their victim, the swans then directed their
attack on the keeper, and capsized his canoe.
GREAT GUNS FOR CRONSTADT.—Eig hty immense
guns are about to be manufactured al, M. lirupp's
celebrated foundry in Prussia. These gulls are for the
Russian Government, and will be mounted at Cronstadt.
They will carry a ball of 2001 b. weight, whielh will perforate
a tour-inch plate at the distance of three miles. E'itraor-
dinary preparations are being made at an immense
which contains fifty steam engines. The hamr aer to be
used weighs 300,0001 b., and the anvil will bt 1 of c orresperid-
hag weight.