THE COAST FISHERIES OF TEXAS. 419 
THE OYSTER LAW OF TEXAS. 
The oyster law at present operative in this State, and to which 
reference has been made in the foregoing text, is as follows: 
An act for the preservation of oysters and oyster beds, and for protecting the rights of persons to the 
same, and affixing penalties, and providing locations for planting oysters. (Laws of 1891, chap- 
ter 98.) 
Be it enacted by the legislature of the State of Texas, That oyster beds shall be pub- 
lic and private; all those not designated as private, shall be public; all natural 
oyster beds and oyster reefs shall be deemed public. No person shall take or catch 
oysters from any public beds for market or sale or planting from the first day of 
May to the first day of September in any year. Any person offending against the 
provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon con- 
yiction thereof shall be fined for each offense not less than ten nor more than fifty 
dollars. 
2. When oysters are culled or selected from public beds, those not wanted for 
market or sale or for family use, shall be planted while alive, by the person or persons 
taking them, on the beds from which they were taken, or some other bed, public or 
private, and any person violating the provisions of this section shall be guilty of 
a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined for each offense not less 
than ten dollars nor more than fifty dollars. 
3. Where any creek, bayou, lake, or cove, not made a navigable stream by the 
laws of this State or of the United States, runs through the lands of any person, such 
person or other Jawful occupant shall have the exclusive right to use said creek, 
bayou, lake, or cove for gathering, planting, or sowing oysters within the metes and 
bounds of the original grant or patent of said land; but if said creek, bayou, lake, 
or cove is not included in the survey of said lands, then the exclusive rights of the 
riparian owner shall extend to the mindle of said creek, bayou, lake, or cove. 
4,°Any person who is an actual bona fide citizen of the State of Texas shall have 
the right of obtaining a location for planting oysters and making private oyster 
beds within any public navigable waters of this State, other than those mentioned | 
in section 3 of this act, by designating a square space not exceeding five hundred 
and thirty-eight yards square, intended by him for such purpose, by not less than 
four buoys anchored, or four stakes firmly and permanently planted, one at each 
corner of such location, and by establishing posted notices of the same on one or 
more of said corner stakes or buoys; said stakes shall project at least four feet above 
ordinary tides and shall be not less than six inches in diameter if of wood or three 
inches in diameter if of iron, and any person so locating as aforesaid shall be pro- 
tected in his possession thereof against trespass thereon, in like manner as free 
holders are protected in their rights for a term of fifteen years after filing with the 
county clerk his notice of location: Provided, That no person shall have the right to 
locate any of the public oyster beds or oyster reefs within the public navigable 
waters of this State under this act or under any pre-existing law. All oyster loca- 
tions made under this act shall expire at the end of fifteen years from the date of 
filing the notice of location with the county clerk, and said location shall then 
revert to the State, as if the same had never been located: And provided further, That 
no person shall locate any private oyster bed in the public navigable waters of 
this State within one hundred yards of low-water mark of any shore without the 
consent of the riparian owner, said owner only having that right, nor shall anyone 
be permitted in any wise to interfere with navigation by inclosure of said oyster beds. 
5. At any time not exceeding sixty days after placing in position any one or more of 
said corner posts or buoys upon one of which shall be placed the notice hereinbefore 
required, the locator shall file, with the county clerk of the county in which his loca- 
tion lies, a notice of his location. The same shall be a notice to whom it concerns that 
the locator has on a certain date, naming it, located a private oyster bed on a 
