392 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
State, and permitted him to take for his own use an area not exceeding 
538 yards square (nearly 60 acres) and to hold the same for a period 
of twelve years. It also provided that no preémption should be per- 
mitted “nearer than the extreme low-water mark in front of the shore 
or water-front of another” without the consent of the owner of such 
water-front. Within a short time after the passage of this bill many 
acres of oyster-grounds were preémpted, and within four years papers 
had been filed for about 30,000 acres of ground situated in Galveston, 
Matagorda, Espiritu Santo, Aransas, and Corpus Christi bays. 
No mention was made in the act of 1887 as to whether the preémpted 
area may not be natural oyster-ground; neither did this enactment 
expressly repeal the act of 1879, though it seems to embrace much of 
the subject-matter of that act. Hence the doubt existed as to whether 
this last enactment permitted the preémption of natural oyster beds. 
Many persons thinking that it did permit such preémption spent time 
and money in obtaining bottoms of that description, as well as unpro- 
ductive ground; these were chiefly persons interested in the marketing 
of oysters. Another class of men, mainly oystermen, while contending 
that the provisions of the act of 1879 prohibiting the preémption of 
natural oyster-grounds was still operative, yet fearing that the courts 
might decide contrary to their ideas, took up such areas for their own 
protection. A third class contented themselves with taking up grounds 
on which oysters do not ordinarily grow, these being obtained partly for 
planting oysters, partly for speculative purposes, and some (particularly 
where the preémptor owned the adjoining water-front) merely to keep 
out other persons. 
This very unsatisfactory order of things existed when the State leg- 
islature met in the spring of 1891, and an attempt was made at that 
session to enact a satisfactory law, and the “oyster question” became 
of some prominence in Texas. This resulted in the enactment of the 
law at present in force, which provides for the preservation to the 
public of all the natural reefs and permits the preémption by each bona- 
fide citizen for fifteen years of an area not exceeding 538 yards square 
(59.8 acres), not productive of oysters at the time of preémption; the 
notice of preémption to be filed for record with the clerk of the county 
in which the grounds may be situated, and its location to be designated 
among other things by “four buoys anchored or four stakes firmly and 
permanently planted, one at each corner of such location. * * * 
Said stakes shall project at least 4 feet above ordinary tides, and shall 
be not less than 6 inches in diameter if of wood or 3 inches in diameter 
if of iron.’””* 
No ground has yet been obtained under thislaw; all the areas now 
held by individuals or corporations having been preémpted under the 
*It seems that this would materially interfere with navigation and serious 
objections would be made to permitting stakes 6 inches square to be “ firmly and 
permanently planted” in navigable waters. 
