INLAND FISHERIES. 365 



filed and posted, the commissioners shall have all the rights in respect 

 to such pond which are secured to lessees of ponds from them ; and 

 any violation of anj^ of said lights shall be punished as provided in 

 section twenty-seven. 



Sect. 20. The commissioners may take or cause to be taken any 

 fish at any time or in any manner for purposes connected with fish 

 culture or scientific observation. 



Sect. 21. The county commissioners for each county shall, upon 

 the request and at the expense of any party claiming to be interested 

 in any great pond, cause the same to be measured in the month of 

 July, and such measurement when determined shall be recorded in the 

 town clerk's oflSce of each town within which such pond is situated ; 

 and no arm or branch shall be included as a part of a pond, unless it 

 is at least fifty feet in width and one foot in depth. 



Sect. 22. The selectmen of a town may measure ponds wholly 

 within the town in the manner provided in the preceding section, and 

 such measurement shall be recorded in the town clerk's office. 



Sect. 23. A pond not more than twenty acres in area, bounded 

 in part by land belonging to a town or county, shall only become the 

 exclusive property of the individual proprietors as to the fisheries 

 therein upon payment to the town treasurer, county commissioners, 

 or state treasurer, of a just compensation for their respective rights 

 therein, to be determined by a board of three persons, one of whom 

 shall be one of the riparian proprietors of said pond, one the chairman 

 of the board of selectmen, if the rights of a town are in question, or 

 of the countj' commissioners, if the rights of a county or the common- 

 wealth are in question, and one to be appointed by the commissioners 

 on inland fisheries. 



Sect. 24. Whoever without the written consent of the proprietor 

 or lessee of a natural pond, the area of which is not more than 

 twenty acres, or of an artificial pond of any size, in which fish are 

 lawfully cultivated or maintained, takes any fish therefrom, shall for- 

 feit a sum not exceeding twenty-five dollars for every such offence. 



Sect. 25. A riparian proprietor may, within the limits of his own 

 premises, enclose the waters of a stream not navigable, for the culti- 

 vation of useful fishes : provided^ he furnishes a suitable passage for 

 migratory fishes naturally frequenting such waters. 



Sect. 26. Fishes artificially propagated or maintained shall be the 

 property of the person propagating or maintaining them ; and a per- 

 son legally engaged in their culture and maintenance may take them 

 in his own waters at pleasure, and may have them in his possession 

 for purposes properly connected with said culture and maintenance, 

 and may at all times sell them for these purposes, but shall not sell 

 them for food at seasons when their capture is prohibited by law. 



