Chap. 12.—An ACT to revive chapter 553 of the acts of the general assembly of
Virginia, approved March 2, 1804, entitled an act giving consent of the state to
purchase by the United States of certain real estate in Wythe county and ex-

empting the same from taxation, &c., and as revived to amend sections 2 and 4
of said act.

Approved December 20, 1897.

Be it enacted that chapter five hundred and fifty-three of the acts of
eighteen hundred and ninety-three and ninety-four, approved March
second, eighteen hundred and ninecty-four, entitled an act giving the con-
sent of the state to the purchase by the United States of certain real
estate in Wythe county, and exempting the same from taxation, and so
forth, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Whereas it has been represented to the general assembly that it may
be desirable for the United States to acquire by purchase a piece or parcel
of land in Wythe county, on Tate’s run, immediately adjoining the
Norfolk & Western railroad, on the north side thereof being the tract of
land, containing thirteen acres, more or less, granted by S. P. Browning
and wife to M. McDonald, commissioner of fisheries of the state of Vir-
ginia, by deed dated October twenty-second, eighteen hundred and
eighty-three, and recorded in deed book thirty, page five hundred
and five, in the office of the clerk of the county court of Wythe county;
and the two coterminous tracts (the first containing one and one-fourth
acres and the other three acres, more or less), granted by the said Brown-
ing and wife to the said McDonald, commissioner, and so forth, by deed
dated August twenty-six, eighteen hundred and eighty-six, and recorded
in the sae office in deed book thirty-three, the three tracts aggregating
seventeen and one-fourth acres, more or less, for the purpose of a fish
hatchery.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the consent
of this commonwealth be, and is hereby, given for said purchase; and
when the same shall have been made jurisdiction is hereby ceded to the
government of the United States, so that congress and the authorities of
the federal government shall have all lawful power and control over and
in the same, as is specified in the seventeenth clause of the eighth section
-of the first article of the constitution of the United States: provided,
however, that the consent herein given shall not extend beyond the tract
of land herein mentioned, and containing seventeen and one-fourth
acres, more or less: and provided, further, that the state retains jurisdic-
tion over the same in all matters relating to the violations of the laws of
this state, to the execution and service of all process issued by or from
the courts, magistrates, or other state officers, in pursuance of law, and
in all other matters not incompatible with the consent herein given and
the rightful authority of the United States therein acquired under this
act, be, and the same is hereby, revived, and that sections two and three
of said act be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 2. If the government of the United States shall fail to make the pur-
chase specified in the preceding section, and for the purpose thercin
designated, within two years from the first of January, eighteen hun-
dred and ninety-eight, then this act shall cease to be of any force and
effect, and the full, complete, and undivided jurisdiction over the same
shall revert to and vest in this commonwealth, as if it had not been
passed; and whenever the United States shall cease to occupy and use
said property the same as a fish hatchery the same shall revert to the
state of Virginia.

§ 4. The board of public works of the state of Virginia is hereby au-
thorized, empowered and directed to sell the said three several parcels
or tracts of land to the United States for the best price and on the best
terms that can be agreed on, and to have the title to the same conveyed
by the attorney-genera! of Virginia to the United States, in accordance
with the provisions of this act. And the said attorney-general is hereby
authorized and directed to convey the said lands to the United States
upon the written request of the president of the said board of public
works.

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