The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-23 00:00:00

SHIPPING-THIS DAY.

LONDON, Dec. 23.—Wind this day at noon—North-
Westerly; light breeze, and cloudy weather.
OFF HURST CASTLE, Dec. 23,—Arrived—Pera, steamer,
from Alexandria.

GLOUCESTER, Dec. 22.—Sailed—Undaunted, for St.
John's.

DOTER, Dec. 22.—Wind N.--A, rived —Antelope, from
Curacoa, for Amsterdam, with loss of an anchor and
chain.

TOREA.Y, Dec. 21.—Wind N.W.—Arrived—Princess
Alice, from Tayforth, for Havannah.
PLYMOUTH, Dec. 22.—Wind N.W.—Arrived—Golden
Horn, screw steamer, from London, for Melbourne' having
lost both anchors and chains off the North Foreland. Sailed
—Minerva, for the African Coast.
PORTSMOUTH, Dec. 22.—Wind W.N.W.—Sailed—Her
Majesty's ship Dromedary, for Ascension; General Caul-
field, for Madras.

SOUTHAMPTON, Tuesday Morning,
Arrived-- New York, steamer, from Bremen; Tartar,
steamer, from Lisbon; Havre and Alliance, steamers, from
Havre; Pera, steamer, from Alexandria; Dispatch, steamer,
from Jersey.
Sailed—Alliance, steamer, for Havre.
(BY MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH.)
GRAVESEND, Tuesday Morning,
Arrived, Dec. 22—Sara, from Aarhuus ; Sea Flower,
from Guernsey,
Arrived, Dec. 23—Cock o' the Walk, from St. Michael's ;
Sir E. Banks, from Calais. .

'DEAL, Tuesday Morning.
Passsed, Dec. 22—Fairlie, for Sydney; Porchester, for
Calcutta—both from London.

SUNRISE FROM MOUNT' ETNA.

In the Diary of the Duke of Buckingham, just published,
is the following rietnrosquo bit of dc.oription:----" Behind
me rose the giant cone (Etna), looking pale and streaky and
snowy through the uncertain light. By degrees the streaks
of purple, which are the first avaunt couriers of the sun,
began to spread themselves over the heavens and the bosom
of the sea, which lay, like a vast mass of uncertain gloom,
I know not how far before me. Almost in an instant, in
the twinkling of an eye, shoots of vivid red ran up from
the edge of the sea to the zenith, filling the sky with masses
of crimson shot with golden threads ; and after I had con-
sidered this extraordinary spectacle for perhaps two or three
minutes, the streaks of golden light getting momentarily
more intense and vivid, giving the effect more of a golden
aurora-borealis than anything else, a speck of dazzling bril-
liance became visible on the surface of the sea; and, break•
ing an awful silence which had lasted from the moment we
had gained the crest of the mountain, my guide exclaimed,
in a low tone, as if in fear, ' Ecco it Soles ' Many men
have sat down in their studios after having seen this great
sight, and have contrived to put together phrases to describe
it. I shall not make the attempt. The only idea which I
think goes near to express anything like a similitud e
to it, is to suppose that ono could have been a
solitary being standing upon chaos when God said
'Let there be light I '—and there was light ! I have
been told by those who have seen the sun rise amidst the
higher Alps, that the scene is grander there, but they have
exclaimed their meaning to be that the sun has risen on
Alps crowned by Alps in almost endless succession of vista,
gradually developing each sunny peak,and lighting up each
glittering glacier. It may be so; but so, during the first
period of his early course, the sun appears to rise like a bene-
ficent Deity upon a new and beautiful creation. Man does
not appear, and his cities are lost in the haze—nothing to be
seen but the immense expanse of the sea, and of a beautiful
world below. Gradually the mist rises, and the objects de-
velop themselves byslow degrees; forests show their colours,
mountains their moving shadows, rivers their silver courses,
and at last, best of all, the habitations of man their dimi-
nutive white cupolas, spires, and fronts."