Chap. 559.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 2 of an act entitled an act
to protect the oyster industry of the commonwealth, approved February 29,
1892.

Approved March 2, 1894.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
two of an act approved February twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred
and ninety-two, entitled an act to protect the oyster industry of the
commonwealth, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 2. And the said board on the Chesapeake and its tributaries, in
order to carry into execution this law, shall direct the fish commis-
sioner, who is hereby appointed a shell-fish commissioner, whose
duty it shall be to direct and control the survey herein provided for.
Said commissioner shall cause to be marked and defined, as accu-
rately as practicable, the limits and boundaries of the natural oyster
rocks, beds and shoals as established by said survey; and he shall
take true and accurate notes of said survey in writing and make up
such an accurate report of said survey, setting forth a description of
the lines, with courses and distances and a description of the land
marks as may be necessary to enable the oyster inspector to find and
ascertain the boundary lines and limits of said natural oyster rocks,
beds and shoals, as shown by the delineation on the maps and charts
provided for in section one of this act. Said report shall be com-
pleted and transmitted to the board on the Chesapeake and its tribu-
taries within three months after the completion of the said survey.
The said board shall cause the same to be published in pamphlet
form, and transmit copies of the same to the clerk of the county
court of the counties where the charts have been filed, or directed to
be filed, as hereinbefore provided for; the said report to be filed by
the clerks of the said several counties; and the said survey and re-
port, when so filed, shall be, and be construed to be, in all the courts
of the commonwealth, as conclusive evidence of the boundaries and
limits of all the natural oyster beds, rocks and shoals lying within
the waters of the counties wherein such survey and report are filed ;
and shall be construed to mean in all of the said courts that there
are no natural oyster beds, rocks or shoals lying within the waters
of the counties wherein such report and survey are filed, other than
those embraced in the survey authorized by this act: provided that
the said survey and report shall not be so construed in any pending
trial or proceeding in any court upon any assignment made prior to
the twenty-fifth day of February, eighteen hundred and ninety-two:
provided, also, that not less than twenty-five residents of any
county may, within four months from the filing of the said survey
and report in such county, file in the clerk’s office of the county court
of said county a petition, in writing, under oath, alleging that
twenty-five or more adjacent acres of natural oyster beds, rocks or
shoals in such county have been omitted from said survey, describing
the location of the same by a plat, or as near as may be, with reason-
able certainty by such land marks as will locate and designate the
rocks, beds or shoals so omitted as aforesaid, but this proviso shall
not apply where the ground claimed by the petitioners has been as-
signed prior to February twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and ninety-
two. The said clerk shall docket the same in the county court. At
the next term of the said court the judge thereof shall appoint three
commissioners, who shall be persons other than the commissioners
directed to be appointed by section four of an act entitled an act to
protect the oyster industry of the commonwealth, approved February
twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, and by its order di-
rect them to ascertain and report to court whether the facts con-
tained in said petition be true.

The said commissioners shall view and examine the alleged oyster
rocks, beds or shoals, and to that end may employ a competent sur-
veyor to survey the same at the same rates paid the county surveyor
by law for similar services, administer an oath to and examine such
witnesses as may appear before them and make report tocourt. If the
said commissioners shall report that less than twenty-five adjacent
acres of natura! ovster rocks, beds or shoals have been omitted from
the said survey the said petition shall be dismissed at the cost
of the petitioners, but if the said commissioners shall ascertain
and report to court that twenty-five or more adjacent acres of
natural oyster rock, bed or shoal in the said county have been omitted
from the said survey they shall designate the same by plat or other-
wise with reasonable certainty in their said report, which report shall
be spread upon the records of the said court,and by the clerk thereof
certified to the board on the Chesapeake and its tributaries: provided,
however, that in the tributaries of the rivers James, Elizabeth, York,
Rappahannock, Potomac and Mobjack bay, the area to which excep
tion may be taken by the twenty-five citizens shall be ten acres
Thereupon the said board shall direct a survey, under the directior
of the said commissioners, of the area designated in said report t
be made by the United States coast and geodetic survey officer de
tailed for duty under section six of an act entitled an act to protec
the oyster industry of the commonwealth, approved February twenty
ninth, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, or by such person as th
aid board shall direct.

Such survey shall be filed in the clerk’s office of said court, as th
riginal survey hereinbefore provided for is required to be filed
ind when so filed, shall be conclusive evidence in all of the court:
f this commonwealth that the area embraced therein is a natura
vster bed, rock orshoal. The costs of the proceedings in the county
ourt shall be paid by the commonwealth if the said commissioner
hall report in favor of the petitioners. In those counties of the com.
nonwealth where no survey and report are filed within three month:
fter the completion of the survey of the natural oyster beds, rock:
nd shoals of the commonwealth, it shall be construed to mean, ir
ll the courts of the commonwealth, that there are no natural oyste!
eds, rocks and shoals in said county or counties, and that all ares
f the Chesapeake bay and its tributaries not embraced in the sur.
ey of the natural oyster beds, rocks and shoals authorized by this
ct shall be construed to be, in all the courts of the commonwealth
arren area, and disposable by the commonwealth for the purpose
f planting or propagating oysters thereon, under section twenty.
ne hundred and thirty-seven of the code of Virginia, as amended
nd enacted by act approved February twenty-fifth, eighteen hun
red and ninety-two. All the work appertaining to and necessary
> the completion of said survey shall be under the control and done
nder the direction of the board on the Chesapeake and its tributa.
ies; which said board is hereby empowered to require the shell-fish
ommissioner hereinbefore named to do all things necessary to the
iccessful prosecution and completion of the said survey.

2. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act be, and the
ame are hereby, repealed.

3. This act shall be in force from its passage.