n6 Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners. 



portions of barren bottoms may thus be necessarily included within 

 such lines. 



Section 91. If residents of any county, exceeding twenty- four 

 in number, shall, within four months after the filing of said survey 

 and report in such county, file in the Circuit Court for said county 

 a petition, in writing, attested by the oath of some one or more of 

 the petitioners, alleging that five or more adjacent acres of oyster 

 beds, bars or rocks, in such county, have been omitted from such 

 surveys, or that five or more acres of barren bottoms have been 

 included in such survey and designating the location of same by a 

 plat, or as near as may be with reasonable certainty by such land 

 marks as will locate and designate the beds alleged to have been 

 omitted or included, a Judge of the Circuit Court for the said 

 county, after due notice given to the Board of Shell Fish Com- 

 missioners, shall proceed to hear testimony and decide the case, as 

 provided in the succeeding section, but this section shall not apply 

 where the ground claimed by the petitioners has been legally taken 

 up prior to the approval of this Act. 



Section 92. Upon hearing a case presented by petition under 

 the preceding section, the Judge shall determine the question 

 whether the ground referred to in said petition is a natural bed or 

 barren bottom, and his finding on said question shall be final, and 

 shall be entered upon the records of the Board of Shell Fish Com- 

 missioners in their office in the City of Annapolis, and properly 

 marked on the copies of the plat as hereinbefore required. 



Section 93. Such amended survey shall be filed in the offices 

 of the Clerks of the Circuit Court for the counties in which the 

 original surveys hereinbefore provided are required to be filed, and 

 when so filed, shall be conclusive evidence in all the Courts of this 

 State as to whether the area embraced therein is or is not a natural 

 oyster bed, bar or rock. 



Section 94. Whenever a petition is filed in the Circuit Court 

 for any county, as authorized in Section 91 of this Act, the parties 

 so petitioning shall deposit Twenty-five Dollars, to be returned to 

 the petitioners if the Judge shall determine in favor of the petition- 

 ers, but if the Judge shall determine adversely to the petitioners, 

 then said sum to be applied, so far as necessary, to the payment of 



