254 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
power to locate and appropriate in any of the waters adjoining his lands one lot of 5 acres for .the 
purpose of protecting, preserving, depositing, bedding, or sowing' oysters or other shellfish; any male 
citizen of fall age of this State shall have power to locate and appropriate and hold one lot of 5 
acres, and no more, in any waters in this State not located or appropriated : Provided, Thirty days’ 
notice, in writing, shall be given the owner or occupant of land bordering on said waters proposed to 
be located, that the owner or occupant may have priority of claim ; and if such owner or occupant 
shall fail to locate or appropriate the water mentioned in said notice within thirty days after receiv- 
ing the same, then it shall be open and free to anyone, under the provisions of this section : Provided, 
also, That the said location or appropriation shall be described by stakes, bashes, and with the name 
of the owner on a board fastened to a pole or stake on or within the appropriated oyster land, or by 
other proper and visible 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 appropriating 
the same, in the office of the clerk of the circuit court for the county wherein such land may be 
located: And provided also, That such location and appropriation shall not injure, obstruct, or impede 
the free navigation of said waters : And provided, That no natural bar or bed of oysters shall be so 
located or appropriated, and that twelve months’ peaceable possession of all locations of oyster-grounds 
under the laws of this State shall constitute a good and sufficient title thereto; but should anyone 
within twelve months be charged with locating or appropriating any natural bed or bar hereinbefore 
prohibited, the question may be at once submitted by any person interested to the judge of the circuit 
court for the county where such question shall arise, who, after having given notice to the parties 
interested, shall proceed to hear the testimony and decide the case ; and if his decision be in favor 
of the party locating said 5 acres, said decision shall be recorded with the original record of said 
5 acres, and shall in all cases be conclusive evidence of title thereto : Provided also, That if any 
stakes or bushes used as bounds shall be removed by accident or design itshallnot excuse any person 
from wrongfully taking such oysters if he knew the grounds to have been located and appropriated; 
but any title or pretended title to more than 5 acres, or otherwise contrary to this section, held or 
claimed by any person is hereby declared to be fraudulent and void: Provided, That no non-resident 
of this State shall be entitled to avail himself of the provisions of this section, whether he be sole or 
part owner of any land in this State; and in case of the death of any citizen who may have located 
and appropriated any lot under the provisions of this section his executors or administrators shall 
have the exclusive use, possession, and control of such lot as fully as the person so dying had for the 
purpose of protecting, cultivating, and removing the oysters planted on said lot for the period of three 
years from the date of the death of the person appropriating such lot ; and any person committing a 
trespass upon said lot, Or taking oysters bedded thereon, without the consent of such executor or 
administrator, shall be liable to the penalties imposed by this article for takiug bedded oysters. 
If any creek, cove, or inlet, not exceeding 100 yards at low water in breadth at its mouth, make 
into the lands, or if any creek, cove, or inlet of greater width than 100 yards at low-water mark, 
make into the lands, the owner or other lawful occupant shall have the exclusive right to use such 
creek, cove, or inlet when the mouth of said creek, cove, or inlet' is 100 yards or less in width ; and 
when the said creek, cove, or inlet is more than 100 yards in width at its mouth at low water, the 
said owner or other lawful occupant shall have exclusive right to use such creek, cove, or inlet so soon 
as said creek, cove, or inlet in making into said land or lands shall become 100 yards in width at low 
water, for preserving, depositing, bedding, or sowing oysters or other shellfish, although such cove, 
creek, or inlet may not be included in the lines of any patent ; and in all such cases such right of the 
riparian proprietor shall extend to the middle of such creek, cove, or inlet. 
That it shall be unlawful, without authority from the owner, for any person or persons to take or 
catch planted or bedded oysters, knowing them to be so planted or bedded, or to remove, break off, 
destroy, or otherwise injure or alter any stakes, bounds, marks, buoys, or other designation of any 
said beds; any person or persons violating the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misde- 
meanor, and on conviction before a circuit court or a justice of the peace for the county where the 
oysters were bedded, shall be fined not less than $10 nor more than $200, or be sentenced to the house 
of correction for a term of not less than three months nor more than one year, at the discretion of 
the judge or justice trying the same. 
Planting lots preempted . — Prior to tlie enactment of 1867 comparatively few pre- 
emptions of lots had been made either under the 1-acre law of 1830 or the 5-acre 
law of 1865, and the title to most of those had been permitted to lapse. It is doubtful 
if more than 350 acres had been located in the State at the time of the aforementioned 
