PUBLIC GENEKAL LAWS. 
231 
tures on account of said fund, and the balance stand- 
ing to the credit of the State at the time of making 
such report. 
Sec. 23. And be it enacted , That the owner or 
owners of any land bordering on any of the navi- 
gable waters of this State, the lines of which extend 
into and are covered by said waters, shall have the 
exclusive privilege of using the same for protecting, 
sowing, bedding or depositing oysters or other shell- 
fish within the lines of their own land; and any 
owner or owners of land lying and bordering upon 
any of the waters of this State shall have power 
to locate and appropriate in any of the waters adjoin- 
ing his, her or their lands, five acres, for the purpose 
of protecting, preserving, depositing, bedding or sow- 
ing oysters or other shell fish ; and that any other 
citizen of the State shall have power to locate and 
appropriate five acres in any waters in said State 
not located or appropriated ; provided thirty days’ 
notice in writing shall be given the owner or 
owners, occupant or occupants of land bordering on 
-said water proposed to be located, that the owner 
or owner, occupant or occupants may have priority 
of claim; and if they shall fail to locate or appro- 
priate the water mentioned in said notice within 
thirty days after receiving the same, then it shall be 
open and free to any one under the provisions of 
this section ; provided, also, that the said location or 
appropriation shall be described by stakes, bushes 
or other proper and visible marks, metes and bounds, 
which description shall be reduced to writing under 
the oath of some competent surveyor and recorded 
at the expense of the party locating or appropriat- 
ing the same, in the office of the Clerk of the Cir- 
-cuit Court in the county wherein such lands may be 
located ; and provided, also, that such location and 
appropriation shall not injure, obstruct or impede 
the free navigation of such waters ; and provided 
that no natural bar or bed of oysters shall be so 
located or appropriated, and that six months’ peace- 
able possession of all locations of oyster grounds, 
under the laws of this State, shall constitute a good 
and sufficient title thereto; but should any one with- 
in the six months hereinbefore provided be charged 
with locating or appropriating any natural bed or 
Exclusive 
privilege. 
Bordering 
on waters. 
Proviso. 
Proviso. 
Proviso. 
