INLAND FISHERIES. 99 



time to time, at their aniui:il meeting in the month of March or April, to 

 choose, by ballot, a comuiittce of freeholders in said town, whose duty 

 it shall be to determine and order by whom and in what place or 

 places the said fish may be taken in the several streams emptying 

 into the Merrimack River, within the town aforesaid ; and shall cause 

 a copy of such order, signed by said committee, or any two of them, 

 to be posted up in some public place in said town. And any person 

 who shall violate such order, upon conviction thereof shall forfeit and 

 pa}' a sum not exceeding five dollars nor less than two dollars : 

 2)rovided, the quantity of fish so taken be less than one barrel. But 

 for every barrel of fish so taken contrary to this law, any person con- 

 victed thertof shall forfeit and pny the sum of seven dollars, to be 

 recovered before any justice of the peace in the county of Essex 

 before whom the complaint shall be made. 



Sect. 2. Be it further enacted,, That the committee aforesaid, or 

 the major part of them, are hereby authorized and empowered to open 

 such sluice or passage-ways through or round any dams erected, or 

 that shall be erected across said streams, as they shall judge necessary 

 for the free passage of said fish, and to remove lumber and every other 

 obstruction to the free passage of said fish ; to erect racks or wooden 

 frames, as they shall judge necessarj-, in said streams through which 

 said fish pass, they being restricted in such opening and clearing to 

 do the same as little to the damage of the owner or owners as ma}^ be ; 

 and such passage so opened by the committee aforesaid, shall continue 

 open, if the}- judge it necessary, from the tenth day of April to the 

 last day of May annually. And if an}' person or persons shall un- 

 lawfully obstruct the passage or passages for said fish, remove or 

 injure any rack or racks that shall be erected by said committee on 

 said streams, such person or persons so offending, upon conviction 

 thereof, shall forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars 

 nor less than forty dollars, to be recovered in any court proper to try 

 the same. 



Sect. 3. Be it further enacted, That it shall and may be lawful 

 for any of said committee, or their assistants, while in the execution 

 of their office, to go upon the land adjoining to said streams without 

 being considered as trespassers ; and any person or persons who shall 

 attempt to hinder or molest said committee, or either of them, in the 

 execution of their office, shall forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding 

 twenty dollars, nor less than ten dollars, to be recovered in any court 

 proper to try the same. 



Sect. 4. Be it further enacted, That the said committee be and 

 hereby are authorized and directed to distribute, or cause to be dis- 

 tributed, the fish that may be taken by them, or any person or persons 

 under them, as equally as circumstances will admit, to such persons 



