420 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
certain space, describing it by such metes and bounds as will suffice to locate it on 
the ground or water, and that he has placed posts or buoys as required by law. If 
such notice be filed before the four corners are designated by posts or buoys, the 
notice skall so state and be followed in sixty days by a supplementary notice after 
the four corners are all designated by posts or buoys. Notices of location shall in 
all cases state that the location described does not conflict with any other private 
bed, and that it is not on any public bed or oyster reef. The notices filed with the 
clerk as aforesaid shall further state that the locator is a bona fide citizen of the 
State of Texas. It shall be signed and sworn to by the locator or his agent; the 
county clerk shall record such notices in a well-bound book to be kept for that pur- 
pose, and the original with a certificate of registration returned to the locator. The 
county clerk shall receive for his services in recording such notices the same fee as 
is charged for recording deeds. The original or certified copies from the records shall 
be admissible in evidence under the same rules governing the admission of deeds or 
certified copies thereof. When the location lies in more than one county the notice 
shall be filed in all the counties in which the location is situated, or otherwise the 
location will be effective only as to those portions lying in the county or counties 
in which the notice or notices are filed. Upon complying with the provisions of this 
act, the right of the locator shall date from the placing of the first post or buoy. All 
oyster beds planted, created, or established in accordance with sections 3 and 4 of 
this act shall be private oyster beds, and the owners of the same shall be entitled to 
all the privileges and protection of this act, after having caused his claim to be duly 
posted and recorded in the county clerk’s office as herein provided. 
6. Thatit shall not be lawful for any person to plant or purchase oysters for plant- 
ing, bedding, or depositing, or for marketing or for any other purpose whatever, 
from the 1st day of May to the lst day of September in any year, and if any person 
shall violate the provisions of this section, or either of them, he shall be deemed 
guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction he shall be fined for each offense not less 
than ten nor more than one hundred doliars. 
7. If any person shall willfully take oysters from a private bed or shall take oys- 
ters deposited by one making up a cargo for market or for family use without the 
consent or permission of the owner thereof, he shall be deemed guilty of theft, and 
upon conviction shall be fined in any sum not less than fifty nor more than two hun- 
dred dollars, and by confinement in the county jail for a term of not less than twenty 
days nor more than twelve months. 
8. It shall be unlawful for any person or persons to rake, dredge, or excavate with 
machinery any public oyster bed or oyster reefs in the waters of this State. Any 
person or persons who shall violate the provisions of this section shall on conviction 
be fined in any sum not less than five hundred nor more than one thousand dollars. 
Kach day’s violation of any of the provisions of this section will constitute a separate 
offense. 
9. Any person who shall willfully deface, injure, or destroy or remove any post or 
buoy, or any part thereof used to designate the corners or boundaries of any private 
oyster beds without the consent of the owner of said private oyster bed, shall be 
deemed guilty of malicious mischief and punished accordingly. 
10. No person, firm, or corporation shall ever own, lease, or otherwise control more 
than six hundred and forty acres of land covered with water, the same being oyster 
locations in this State, and any corporation that now holds six hundred and forty 
acres or more of such oyster locations shall not be permitted hereafter to acquire, 
own, lease, or otherwise control more, provided that no corporation shall own or 
lease, or otherwise control any such land covered by water unless such corporation 
shall be duly incorporated under the laws of this State. 
11. All laws and parts of laws in conflict with the provisions of this act are hereby 
repealed. 
12. [Emergency clause. ] 
