134 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION, 
after the claimant has had a reasonable time to remove any shell- 
fish he may have planted or cultivated thereon in good faith. 
Section 11 provides that, “ Any commissioner who shall know- 
ingly grant to any person a franchise in a natural clam or oyster 
bed, shall be subject to a fine of not less than one hundred nor 
more than five hundred dollars, the grant shall be void, and all 
moneys paid thereon shall be forfeited to the State.” Section 2 
provides that the commissioners shall make or cause to be made 
a survey and map of all the grounds within the jurisdiction of 
the State in Long Island Sound, which have been or may be des- 
ignated for the planting or cultivation of shell-fish, and also 
cause a survey of all the natural oyster beds in said area, and 
shall locate and delineate the same onamap. The same sec- 
tion provides that the commissioners shall report to the next 
session of the legislature a plan for an equitable taxation of the 
property in said fisheries, make an annual report and give a 
‘bond for the faithful performance of their duties. One of the 
first things to be done under the law was to designate the natu- 
ral oyster beds of the State, and after long and patient hearings 
and consultation with the oystermen, all of the natural oyster beds 
have been mapped, except one about which there has been much 
litigation, and as one question in reference to its location is now 
in the hands of the Supreme Court of the State for decision, the 
mapping has been delayed until this question shall be decided. 
Eight in all have been described to the satisfaction of everyone, 
and they comprise 5,498 acres. Surveying and mapping the des- 
ignations made by the town committees has been exceedingly 
difficult, caused by the fact that in many cases the survey was 
done hurriedly, and in many more by incompetent persons who 
seem never to have pretended to do more than guess at the work: 
The consequence is that frequently a person has a deed described 
in words, an accompanying map of the ground, and is in occu- 
pation of a plot of ground which corresponds with neither; the 
map and description also being found utterly irreconcilable. 
Now as his next neighbor is in a similar predicament, and the 
ground has become valuable, it is easy to see that ill feeling and 
prolonged litigation are almost inevitable. 
In order to meet this difficulty the legislature April 26th, 1882, 
