116 SHELL-FISH COMMISSIONERS’ REPORT. [Jan., 
to appear before them, and having been duly sworn shall inquire 
into the facts, and erect and establish such lost and uncertain 
bounds, and may employ a surveyor to assist therein, and shall re- 
port the facts and their doings to the court; and if said court shall 
find said parties were duly notified, it may confirm said doings, 
and certified copies of said report and decree shall be recorded in 
the records of the town in which said lands are, or in which the 
designations of said grounds for planting or cultivating oysters, 
clams, or mussels are recorded, and the bounds so erected and es- 
tablished shall be the bounds between said proprietors. 
Sec. 2. Section four, article one, part one, chapter four, title 
sixteen of the general statutes (page 214) is hereby amended, so 
that in place of so much thereof as commences with the words 
‘‘every person’ in the first line thereof, and extends to the words 
‘written assignment ” in the fifth line thereof, it shall read as fol- 
lows: 
Every person who shall plant or cultivate oysters, clams, or mus- 
sels in any such place shall own them, and also all other oysters, 
clams, or mussels on such place, and have the exclusive right of 
taking up and disposing of them, and of using such place for the 
purpose of planting or cultivating oysters, clams, or mussels therein, 
which shall be transferable by written assignment. 
Sec. 3. So much of section seventh, article first, part first, chap- 
ter fourth, title sixteenth of the general statutes (page 215) as com- 
mences with the words ‘‘and all attested copies,” in the third line 
from the last line, and extends to the close of said section, is here- 
by amended so as to read as follows : 
And all attested copies of such applications, designations, and 
assignments, with a certificate that they have been recorded, shall 
be conclusive evidence of the fact of such record and primé facie 
evidence of the validity of such application, designation, and as- 
signment. 
Sec. 4. Section fifteen, article one, part one, chapter four, title 
sixteen of the general statutes (page 216) is hereby amended so as 
to read as follows : 
Any member of a committee or selectman (except of the towns 
of Orange, New Haven, and Hast Haven), who shall designate 
places for planting or cultivating oysters upon natural oyster beds, 
and any committee or selectman who shall make such designation 
upon any places where it is by law prohibited, shall forfeit not less 
than twenty-five dollars, nor more than two hundred dollars, half 
