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 lis 25.20 per £1 sterling. On
Comparing these rates with the English Mint price of £3
I7s. 100. per ounce for standard gold, it appears that gold is
about:3-10ths per cent. dearer in London than in Paris.
By advices fromHambarg the price of gold is 423} per mark
and the short exchange on London is 13.5 per £1 sterling.
standard gold at the English Mint price is, therefore, rather
more than 3-10ths per cent. dearer in London than in Ham-
burg.
The course of exchange at New York on London for bills at
60 days' sight is 176 per cent., and the premium on gold is
about r.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
anda thundering down front
looking out for the boulders
the mountain side, a little above the river. Six were
that every
allone
w outside,then came
was
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 liees.—Dickens's
" 411 the Year Round."
FEROCITY or THE SWAN.--Yesterday the pro-
prietors of -Wombwell'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 there, the encounter commenclug
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 w:th
their wings and bills with a ferocity and formidableness that
was truly surprising. The contest lasted upwards of -0
minutes, and would, doubtless, have ended al
fatly to the
pelican but for the timely arrival of a keeper, who succeededt
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. Ears.erated at losing their victim, the ovens then directed their
attack on the keeper, and capsized his canon.
GREAT GUNS FOR CRONSTADT.—Eighty Mit:llSe
guns are about to be manufactured at M. Krupp's
celebrated foundry in Prussia. These gnus are for the
Russian Government, and will be mounted at Cronstadt.
They will carry a ball of 2001 b. weight, which will perforate
a four-inch plate at the distance of three miles. Extraor-
dinary preparations are being made at an immense buildi ,g,
which contains fifty steam engines. The hammer to be
used weighs 300,0001 b., and the anvil will be of correspond-
ing weight,