of said penalties, to be recovered to and for the use of the state, and the other half part thereof to and for the use of the person who shall prosecute for the same.

SEC. 5. Any justice of the peace within this state may, on complaint made to him on oath, setting forth that the complainant believes that any dredge or other instrument as aforesaid hath, within the waters of this state, been used from, or is or has been within the waters of this state, on board of any boat or vessel employed in taking oysters within the waters of this state, may issue a warrant directed to the sheriff or his deputy of the county in which such justice resides, commanding him to seize and hold such boat or vessel, with its tackle, apparel, furniture and implements as aforesaid, and to bring before him, or some other lawful authority, to be bailed or committed for want of bail, all persons on board the same; in order that said persons and property may be proceeded with in manner aforesaid, before some court of competent jurisdiction to try the same. The court for trial before whom said persons may be bailed or committed, before final trial, in term time, or any justice thereof in vacation, may deliver such boat or vessel, with its tackle, apparel, furniture and implements, to the claimant thereof, upon appraisal and bond. Upon conviction of all or any of the persons on board said boat or vessel, the same, with its tackle, apparel, furniture and implements aforesaid, shall be sentenced to be sold by the sheriff or his deputy seizing the same, in the same manner as personal property levied on execution; whether the owner of such boat or vessel was on board the same at the commission of the offence, or sanctioned such unlawful use of the same, or not: provided, however, that nothing in this or the preceding section mentioned shall be so construed as to prevent any citizen of this state from taking oysters in Point Judith ponds, in South-Kingstown, by a certain instrument long used in said ponds, known by the name of an under-rake, and described as follows: the handle of said rake being fifteen to twenty feet in length, the head from one to two feet in length, filled with iron teeth from six to ten inches in length, and mostly used through holes cut in the ice.

SEC. 6. No person shall take any oysters, quahaugs, clams or other shell fish within the waters or on the shores of this state unless he be an inhabitant thereof, and domiciled therein; and every citizen of any other state or country who shall at any time take any oysters, quahaugs, clams or other shell fish within the waters or on the shores of this state, shall

forfeit and pay the sum of one hundred dollars for each and every offence; and every boat or vessel commanded or owned in whole or in part by any person not a citizen of this state, and used or in any way employed in the taking of oysters or shell fish within the waters or on the shores of this state, shall, together with its tackle, apparel, furniture and implements on board, be seized and forfeited; said forfeiture and penalties to be recovered in the same manner and to the same uses and like proceedings therefor in all respects to be had, as for the forfeiture and penalties in the two preceding sections mentioned: provided, however, that nothing in this section contained shall be construed to prevent any citizen of the commonwealth of Massachusetts from taking quahaugs or clams on the east shore of Providence bay or river, between high and low water mark, wherever the territorial line of Massachusetts runs along the shore of said bay or river; and in such other places as by other special acts of the general assembly are or may be provided.

SEC. 7. Every person who shall knowingly and wilfully break up, damage or injure any bed of oysters within the wa ters of this state, shall forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred dollars for each and every offence; to be recovered by indictment before any court of competent jurisdiction, one half thereof to and for the use of the state, and the other half thereof to and for the use of him who shall prosecute for the

same.

SEC. 8. At the annual general election the general assembly shall choose three persons, citizens of and domiciled within this state, to be commissioners of the shell fisheries; who shall hold their offices for one year, and until others are elected in their places; and shall be commissioned by the governor, and engaged on their commissions to the faithful execution of the duties of their office. It shall be the duty of · said commissioners to watch over the oyster and other shell fisheries of this state; to prosecute for all breaches of the law in relation to the same, and from time to time to recommend to the general assembly such action as in their opinion will tend to preserve and increase the value of such fisheries.

SEC. 9. Said commissioners, or any two of them, may upon application of any suitable person or persons, being inhabitants of and domiciled within this state, in the name of the state, and under their hands and seals as such commissioners, lease to such person or persons, for a term not less than five, nor more than ten years in duration, any piece of land covered by the public waters of this state, (excepting

Point Judith ponds in the town of South-Kingstown,) lying south of a line running east and west from Field's Point, in Providence River, across the state, and including Fuller's Rocks, so called, as a private or several oyster ground or oyster fishery, for the planting of oysters, upon such terms and restrictions as to the importing and planting of oysters therein, and upon such rent reserved to the state and annually payable to the general treasurer thereof, as they shall think just and expedient; so that no one person shall have more than one acre of land, and no company more than one acre to each member of the same, so covered with water leased to him or them as aforesaid. Said leases shall be executed by said lessee or lessees as well as by said commissioners in two parts, one part thereof to be delivered to said lessee or lessees, and the other part thereof to be forthwith transmitted by said commissioners to the general treasurer; and shall contain proper covenants for the payment of rents, and the performance of the conditions and observance of the restrictions therein set forth, with proper clauses reserving to said commissioners a right to re-enter on behalf of the state, and to terminate said lease, for breach of any of said covenants.

SEC. 10. Said commissioners, or any two of them, shall before granting any lease as aforesaid, personally inspect the land asked to be leased as aforesaid; and shall decide upon the propriety of leasing the same, taking especial care not to include in the land so leased, any old oyster bed or any part of any old oyster bed which in their opinion can for the greater advantage of the public be used as a free and common oyster fishery; but their decision in the premises, proved by the execution of the lease, shall in all cases and for all purposes be final and conclusive thereupon. They shall also, if they shall deem it necessary, before granting any such lease, cause the land to be leased as aforesaid to be surveyed and platted, in which case a copy of the plat shall be annexed to each part of the lease; and shall in all cases cause proper bounds with marks thereon to be set up on the shore within this state, opposite and nearest to such land to be leased as aforesaid, in order to define the limits thereof; and whenever and so far as the same can be done without interfering with navigation, shall cause such land to be leased as aforesaid to be enclosed with stakes or buoys not more than two rods apart, with such marks thereon as they may direct. The drawing and executing of such leases, the surveying and platting, the setting up and marking of bounds on shore, and the enclosing of the lands leased with stakes or buoys, and marking of the same

as aforesaid, shall in all cases be done under the direction of said commissioners, or any two of them, at the expense of the applicant or applicants for such lease; and said commissioners shall receive from such applicant or applicants their necessary expenses, and one dollar and a half per day for each day's actual service about his or their application. Said bounds, stakes or buoys, with the marks thereon, shall be renewed whenever said commissioners shall direct.

SEC. 11. Any person who shall injure, deface or destroy said marks or bounds, or shall break, pull up, injure, carry off, cut or destroy any such stake or buoy, or deface any mark thereon, or shall tie or fasten any boat or vessel to any such stake or buoy, shall forfeit and pay the sum of twenty dollars for each offence, to be recovered on complaint and warrant before any justice of the peace within this state, on the complaint of any person who shall duly recognize for the costs of such prosecution; the said penalty to be recovered, the one half thereof to and for the use of the state, and the other half thereof to and for the use of him who shall prosecute for the same. Any such person shall, in addition thereto, be liable in an action of the case to pay double damages and costs to him or them who shall be injured by having the marks and bounds, stakes or buoys of their said lots injured, defaced, removed or used as aforesaid.

SEC. 12. The oysters planted or growing in any private oyster ground leased as aforesaid shall, during the continuance of the lease, be the private personal property of the lessee or lessees of such oyster ground; and the taking and carrying away thereof, or of any of the same, shall be theft, under all circumstances in which the taking and carrying away of any other personal property would be theft, and shall be punished accordingly: provided, however, that nothing in this section contained shall interfere with or invalidate the right of any lessee or lessees to commence any private action for the taking and carrying away of their oysters aforesaid, and to recover full damages for the private injury by them thereby sustained.

SEC. 13. This act shall go into operation from and after the passage thereof, and the first election of commissioners under the same shall take place at the present session of the general assembly; and all other public acts or parts of public acts relating to the shell fishery, so far as inconsistent herewith, are hereby repealed.

Passed January session, 1844.

An Act in amendment and explanatory of an act entitled "An Act for the preservation of Oysters and other Shell Fish within this State."

It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows:

SECTION 1. Nothing contained in the act of which this is explanatory and in amendment shall be so construed as to include, within the provisions of the first and third sections thereof, the pond on Block-Island, and the oyster fisheries therein; or to prevent the planting of any oysters taken therefrom in any private oyster grounds within this state.

SEC. 2. There shall be appointed by the general assembly from time to time, a committee of three persons, whose duty it shall be to let, in conformity with the provisions of the act of which this is in amendment, the whole or any portion of the oyster fisheries in the pond on Block-Island, to such persons being inhabitants of the town of New-Shoreham as they shall think fit; in consideration that such persons shall keep open during eight months at least in each and every year, the breach of said pond, under the direction of said committee; the performance of which consideration of said lease or leases shall be duly secured by proper covenants therein contained: provided, that if the whole of said oyster fisheries be let to one company, no stakes, bounds or buoys need be set or kept up.

SEC. 3. The commissioners of the shell fisheries are hereby authorized to lease, under the provisions of the act of which this is in amendment, for use as private oyster grounds, any of the lands covered by the public waters of this state, lying north of Field's Point and between the channel and harbor line on the west side of Providence river, and not extending north of a line drawn from the depot of the New-York, Providence and Boston Rail-Road Company, eastward to the channel.

SEC. 4. Nothing in the act of which this is explanatory and in amendment shall be so construed as to prevent any citizen of this state from digging clams or quahaugs on the