1882. ] SHELL-FISH COMMISSIONERS’ REPORT. 59 
igable waters of the State for the purpose of planting and 
cultivating oysters in pursuance of the statute law ‘relating 
to fisheries of shell-fish in tide waters and rivers’ shall be 
valid although the committee or selectmen making such 
designation may not have made a written description of 
such designation and inclosure, by ranges or otherwise, of 
the time ‘of such designation ; and although the application 
for such designation, with the designations and desecrip- 
tions of the places designated may not have been recorded 
as provided by Section Seventh of said law; and although 
the owners of said places may have lost their evidences of 
title after filing the same with the town clerk as provided 
by said law.” 
This law was probably pushed through the legislature 
for a special purpose, and has been the means whereby 
designing men have been enabled to hold oyster grounds 
to which they had not a shadow of right, either by desig- 
nation, assignment, or possession. | 
The following, passed in 1878, Chap. XXIV of the Ses- 
sion Laws, is also of questionable propriety: ‘Section 10: 
All designations of ground heretofore made for the purpose 
of planting and cultivating oysters, and describing the 
ground as containing not over two acres, to each applicant, 
exclusive of muddy or rocky bottom, or other bad bottom, 
or containing other words indicating the exclusion of 
ground unfit for planting or cultivating oysters, are hereby 
validated and confirmed, although the total quantity of 
ground embraced in the designation may be more than two 
acres to each applicant; and such desigations hereatter 
made shall be valid.” 
This law has been the means of enabling persons to get 
possession of hundreds of acres of land without paying for 
the same, under the false assumption or representation 
that it was unsuitable for oyster cultivation. 
By the act of 1881, the State for the first time assumed 
direct control of the oyster grounds of the Sound. It was 
a most useful and timely act—passed, as it was, just as the 
native oyster cultivation had received a new impulse and 
the boundary line had been established between New 
