INLAND FISHERIES. 299 



tion of the same, and such rules and regulations as they may deem 

 necessary for the preservation and protection of said fisher}^ and for 

 the taking and disposal of said fish : provided, such by-laws are not 

 inconsistent with the laws of this Commonwealth. 



Sect. 3. The selectmen shall annually post up the regulations so 

 established in two or more public places in said town, within ten da^^s 

 after their passage. 



Sect. 4. If any person shall take any of said fish in any of the 

 waters aforesaid at a time or in a manner other than shall be allowed 

 by said town, such person shall for each offence, on conviction thereof, 

 pay a fine not exceeding twenty dollars. 



Sect. 5. The said town of Mattapoisett shall be liable to pay all 

 damages that shall be sustained by any person in their property by 

 the taking of any lands or by the construction of any dams, sluice- 

 ways or other works or by flowage for the purpose of carrying this 

 act into effect ; and if any person sustaining damage as aforesaid, 

 shall not agree with the selectmen of the town upon the damage to 

 be paid therefor, the superior court holden within and for the county 

 of Plymouth shall, upon the petition of such person, appoint three 

 competent and disinterested persons to hear and award thereon ; and 

 their award or that of any two of them, being accepted b}^ said court, 

 shall be final : provided, that said petition shall be filed in the office of 

 the clerk of said court within three years after such damage shall have 

 been sustained, and not afterwards. Such person, if he shall so elect, 

 may have his damages assessed and paid in the manner provided by 

 law with respect to land taken for highway. 



Sect. 6. If at any time it shall be apparent that the establishment 

 of the herring fishery herein provided for shall have sensibly dimin- 

 ished the catch of herrings at the weirs upon Hammond's River, in 

 said Mattapoisett and in Rochester, then such equitable indemnity 

 shall be rendered to the owners of said Hammond's River fisher}^ in 

 fish or otherwise, as the legislature shall determine. 



Sect. 7. This act shall take effect upon its passage. — [May 1, 

 1865. 



[1856, 176.] 



An Act relating to the taking of Menhaden in the Waters of Buzzard's Bay and Vine- 

 yard Sound. 



1865, 212. Be it enacted, etc., as folloins: Sect. 1. From and 

 after the passage of this act, it shall be lawful for any person to take 

 menhaden by the use of the purse seine, so called, in the waters of Buz- 

 zard's Bay or of Vineyard Sound, or the waters of an}- baj's, inlets or 

 rivers bordering on or flowing into the same : provided, that no 

 authority shall be hei'eby given to use any such seine at the mouth of 



