320 LAWS RELATING TO 



fifteenth day of March and the first day of June, in each year, or 

 takes or catches an}' smelts with a net of any kind, on any known 

 spawning ground within said Commonwealth, shall forfeit for each 

 smelt so taken or caught, the sum of twenty-five cents : provided^ 

 that nothing herein contained shall apply to anj' person catching 

 smelts in any seine or net in Taunton Great River, or in Dukes 

 Count}^ while fishing for herring or alewives, or to the lessees of the 

 towns of Yarmouth and Dennis, while fishing for perch or alewives in 

 Bass River or its tributaries, or to any person lawfully fishing for 

 perch, herring or alewives in either branch of Westport River. 



Sect. 32. Actions and prosecutions under the laws relating to in- 

 land fisheries shall not be commenced except within four months from 

 the time when the cause of action accrues or the offence is committed. 



Sect. 33. One-half of the money recovered as a penalty in any 

 case arising under the laws relating to inland fisheries, shall be paid 

 to the person making the complaint in the case in which the same is 

 recovered, and the remainder to the Commonwealth. 



Sect. 34. The two hundred and forty-ninth chapter of the acts 



of the year eighteen hundred and sixty-six, and the one hundred and 



seventy-ninth chapter of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and 



sixty-eight, and all legislation heretofore enacted limiting the time 



and season when pickerel may be taken, are hereby repealed. — [June 



12, 1869. 



[P. S. 91.] 



[1866, 238.] 



An Act in addition to an Act concerning the Obstructions to the Passage of Fish in 



Connecticut and Merrimack Rivers. 



1869, 422. Be it enacted^ etc., as follows: Sect. 1. When- 

 ever an}' proprietor of any dam in Massachusetts, upon the Merri- 

 mack or Connecticut Rivers, shall have refused or neglected for the 

 period of thirty days from the time when the commissioners of fish- 

 eries shall have furnished such proprietors with the plan specified in 

 sections three, four and five of chapter two hundred and thirty-eight 

 of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and sixty-six, to agree with 

 said commissioners for the building on, over or around his dam of the 

 fish-way prescribed by the plan furnished such proprietors by said 

 commissioners, then said commissioners, or the survivors or survivor 

 of them, or their successors or successor, may file in the supreme 

 judicial court a bill in equity, in their name but in behalf of said 

 Commonwealth, asking for a decree to enforce the immediate con- 

 struction and erection of such fish-way as is called for by the plan so 

 furnished, to the acceptance of said commissioners, and for such fur- 

 ther and other relief as they may deem necessary to enable them to 

 enforce the provisions of said chapter two hundred and thirty-eight. 



