Chap. 390.—An ACT making it lawful to adopt marks of designation for saw-
logs, piles, hewn timber or square timber, and for the protection of the
owners thereof.

Approved February 24, 1894.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That it shall
be lawful for any person, at any time, engaged in lumbering or raft-
ing in any manner upon the Elizabeth river, in the state of Virginia,
oron any of its tributaries, or in the Albemarle and Chesapeake
canal, or in the Dismal swamp canal, or in any river or creek lying
within the boundaries of this state and connecting with either of
said canals, or upon Chesapeake bay, to adopt a mark of designation
(which mark may be either in letters, figures, words, names, or other
devices, at the discretion of such person), wherewith to stamp or
mark all saw-logs, piles, hewn timber or square timber, put, or in-
tended to be put, by him in any of said streams, to be floated and
rafted on the same. A statement of the marks so adopted, with a cer-
tificate appended that the same has been so adopted as the mark of
designation aforesaid, signed by the person adopting the same as
aforesaid, shall be furnished to the clerk of the court of the city or
county where such person is doing business as aforesaid, and bas his
principal office. And no person shall be entitled to adopt more than
one of any of the respective kinds of marks or stamps aforesaid as his
mark of designation, but any such person shall not be prohibited
from using any other mark, in addition to such mark of designation,
for distinguishing different kinds or lots of timber obtained from
different localities, so always that it interfere not with the mark of
designation of any other person. And the clerk of the said court
shall be entitled to demand and receive for the first certificate of such
mark of designation the sum of seventy-five cents, and for every sub-
sequent certificate of like nature the sum of fifty cents; and any
such certificate shall be prima facie evidence of the right of the
person filing the same to use the mark or marks mentioned therein.

2. Any person, except the owner thereof, taking up and securing
any saw-log, pile, hewn timber or square timber detached from any
raft and found adrift or aground on any of the waters or streams
aforesaid, shall promptly report such fact to the owner thereof, or
shall lodge a list containing a description of the quantity, quality
and marks, if any, of such timber with a justice of the peace living
nearest. to the place where such timber was so found and secured,
which justice of the peace shall promptly advertise the same for five
consecutive days in a newspaper published in the city of Norfolk.
If said timber shall not be claimed by the owner thereof within
thirty days after such publication, it shall and may be lawful for
such justice to order the sale thereof at public auction by a consta-
ble, after giving five days’ notice of the time, place and terms of such
sale by not less than six handbills posted in the most public places
in the vicinity where the same was found, and within the county
wherein said justice may reside; and out of the proceeds of said
sale the justice, after paying the expenses of such advertisement and
handbills, together with all the other costs of such proceeding at
law, shall pay to the person or persons who found and secured the
said timber ten cents for each piece thereof so taken and secured ;
and the residue of such proceeds of sale the justice shall pay into
the treasury of this commonwealth for the benefit of the state.

3. If any person shall fraudulently or willfully use any such regis-
tered mark, or shall fraudulently claim to be the owner of any such
marked saw-log, pile, square or hewn timber found or being in any
of said streams of water, whether floating or aground, or tied up to
any wharf or other object, either as part of a raft or not, or shall
take and carry away any such marked saw-log, pile or piece of square
or hewn timber without the authority of the owner thereof, or shall
willfully deface or obliterate any such mark, name, figure, letter or
other designation thereon or shall fraudulently saw, split, consume,
destroy or injure any such marked saw-log, pile, square er hewn tim-
ber, or shall, without the consent of the owner thereof, sell or con-
vert the same to his own use, unless it shall have been duly forfeited
according to the provisions of this act or according to other provi-
sions of law, he shall for every such offence, and upon conviction
thereof, be imprisoned for a term of not less than sixty days and
not exceeding twelve months, in the discretion of the court, in the
jail of the county where such offence was committed.

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