278 LAWS EELATING TO 



stretch any seine or net in any of the ponds, creeks or outlets thereof. 

 The seining of menhaden and mackerel is exempted from this act. 



Sect. 2. Any person violating any provision of this act shall be 

 liable to a fine not exceeding three hundred dollars for each offence, 

 or any boat, vessel or fishing apparatus used by persons violating the 

 provisions of this act may be seized and detained not exceeding the 

 time of forty-eight hours, by any person appointed for the purpose by 

 the town of Edgartown, for the purpose of duly prosecuting the 

 person offending this law. 



Sect. 3. The town of Edgartown is hereby authorized to choose, 

 at the annual town meeting or at a.nj meeting duly warned for that 

 purpose, such number of fish-wardens as may at the time be thought 

 necessary, who shall be sworn to the faithful discharge of their duty, 

 whose duty it shall be to prosecute for offences against the provisions 

 of this act ; one half of all fines imposed and collected shall inure, to 

 the fish-wardens, and the other half to the Commonwealth. 



Sect. 4. All fines or penalties for violating any provision of this 

 act, with costs, may be sued for and recovered in any court compe- 

 tent to tr}' the same, on complaint of either of the fish-wardens. 



Sect. 5. This act shall take effect from and after its passage. — 



[June 6, 1856. 



[1872, 218.] 



[Sp. Laws, vol. 1, p. 272.] 

 An Act for the preservation of Fish in the Merrimac River. 



1856, 289. Be it enacted^ etc., a.s foUoios: Sect. 1. The Essex 

 Company shall, before the first day of Februar}' which will be in the 

 }'ear one thousand eight hundred and fift^^-seven, make and forever 

 thereafter maintain in or around their dam in Lawrence, a suitable 

 and sufficient fish-wa}^ for the usual and unobstructed passage of 

 fish during the months of April, May, June, September and October, 

 in every year, under a penalty of not less than one hundred dollars 

 nor more than five hundred dollars for every day said company shall 

 neglect to make and maintain such fish-way after said first day of 

 February, to be recovered by indictment in either county of Essex or 

 Middlesex, one half to the use of the complainant and one half to the 

 use of the Commonwealth. 



Sect. 2. No person shall take an}- fish with a spear, net, hook or 

 seine during either of the months aforesaid in any year, within eighty 

 rods of said dam or the entrance of said fish-way. 



Sect. 3. Ever}' person offending against the provisions of the 

 preceding section shall be punished by fine, not exceeding one hun- 

 dred dollars for each offence, one half of which shall inure to the use 

 of the complainant, and the other half to the use of the Commonwealth. 



