PHILLIPS LEE GOLDSBOROUQH, ESQ., GOVERNOR. 981

practicable, the starting point, route and terminus and lateral
branches, if necessary, of the proposed improvement, and there
is filed therewith a bond for the amount of fifty dollars per
mile for such mile of the ditch, or proposed improvement,
signed by two or more sureties or by some lawful and author-
ized surety company, to be approved by the Board of County
Commissioners and conditioned for payment of all costs and
expenses incurred in the proceedings in case the board does
not grant the prayer of said petition, the said clerk shall
issue a summons to be served on all the defendant landowners
who have not joined in the petition and whose lands are
included in the proposed drainage districts. The summons
may be served by publication as to any defendants who cannot
be personally starved as provided by law. When a mortgage is
held on land within the proposed drainage district, notice shall
be given to the holders of mortgages in all respects as is pro-
vided in this act for defendant landowners, and they shall
have the right to appear before the commissioners in person
or by counsel. Upon the return day the said Board of County
Commissioners shall appoint a disinterested and competent
civil and drainage engineer who shall be recommended by the
State drainage engineer (or if there is no drainage engineer
then by the state roads engineer), and two resident freeholders
of the county or counties in which said lands are located as a
board of viewers to examine the lands described in the peti-
tion and make a preliminary report thereon. When the lands
proposed to be drained and created into a drainage district
are located in two or more counties the Board of County Com-
missioners of either county shall have and exercise the juris-
diction herein conferred, and the venue shall be in that county
in which the petition is first filed.

SEC. 3. Be it enacted, That the Board of Viewers appointed
under section 2 shall at once proceed to make a careful and
thorough examination of the lands described in the petition,
and other land if necessary to locate properly such improve-
ment or improvements as are petitioned for, along the route
described in the petition or any other route answering the same
purpose if found more practicable or feasible, and shall see
that the lands of all who desire to come within the drainage dis-
trict have been included within said district, and they may
make surveys necessary to determine the boundaries and eleva-
tion of the several parts of the district, and to enable them to
form a tentative plan for development, and shall make and
return to the clerk of the Board of County Commissioners,
to be placed on public file in his office within thirty days,