INLAND FISHERIES. 185 



at four o'clock on Monday morning and to end at four o'clock 

 on Frida}' morning, anj'thing in any law of this Commonwealth, 

 now existing, to the contrary notwithstanding : provided, that the 

 said town of Bridgewater shall, at a legal meeting, between the 

 first day of September and the last day of December in each year, 

 dispose and make sale of at public auction for the next year, and so 

 on from year to year, their privilege of catching shad or alewives with 

 a seine or net, in the river aforesaid, for the time aforesaid, to such 

 person or persons as shall offer the most for the same, and give suffi- 

 cient security for the payment of the purchase money at such time 

 and in such manner as the said town shall order : x>rovided, also, that 

 it shall not be lawful for said town or the purchaser of said privilege, 

 to catch the fish aforesaid, within seventy-five rods of the dam across 

 said river, known by the name of Pratt's Dam. 



Sect. 2. Be it further enacted , That the purchaser or purchasers 

 of said privilege shall select the place where he or the}^ intend to use 

 his or their seine or net, for the purpose of catching shad and ale- 

 wives, and shall file a certificate thereof with the clerk of the town of 

 Bridgewater, on or before the first day of March in each year ; and no 

 purchaser of the privilege aforesaid shall make use of a seine or net 

 for the purpose aforesaid, at any other place in said river than the 

 place so selected and certified as aforesaid, during the time aforesaid. 



Sect. 3. Be it further enacted, That if any person or persons shall, 

 at any time or place other than those admitted by this act, catch or 

 destroy the fish aforesaid, in said Titicut River, he or they shall for- 

 feit and pay a sum not exceeding twenty dollars nor less than five 

 dollars, to be recovered by indictment, complaint or action of debt, in 

 any court proper to try the same, one half to the use of the said town 

 of Bridgewater, and the other half to him who shall sue or prosecute 

 the same : i^rovided, that in all prosecutions for any violation of this 

 act, by the fish-inspectors, or any other inhabitant of the town of Mid- 

 dleborough, one half of the penalty shall accrue to that town, instead 

 of the "town of Bridgewater. 



Sect. 4, Be it further enacted, That said town of Bridgewater 

 shall, at their annual meeting in the month of March or April in each 

 year, choose four or more persons, being freeholders in said town, whose 

 duty it shall be to see that this act be duly observed and to prosecute 

 for all breaches thereof; and each person so chosen shall be sworn to 

 the faithful discharge of his duty, and if any person so chosen shall 

 refuse to serve, he shall forfeit and pay to the use of the town of 

 Bridgewater the sum of five dollars, to be sued for and recovered by 

 the town clerk of said town, and said town shall immediately proceed 

 to a new choice. — [February 15, 1825. 



[1825, 74.] 



