ART. 13. ] OYSTERS.

using the same for protecting, sowing, bedding, or depositing oys-
ters or other shellfish within the lines of their own land; and any
owner or owners of land lying and bordering upon any of the waters

151

of this State, shall have power to locate and appropriate in any of
the waters adjoining his, her, or their land, five acres, for the pur-
pose of protecting, preserving, depositing, bedding, or sowing oys-

Location of
planting
ground.

ters or other shellfish; and that any other citizen of the State shall
have power to locate and appropriate five acres in any waters in said

Location by
citizen of State

State not located or appropriated; provided, thirty days' notice in
writing shall be given the owner or owners, occupant or occupants,
of land bordering on said water proposed to be located, that the

Notice.

owner or owners, occupant or occupants, may have priority of claim,
and if they shall fail to locate or appropriate the water mentioned
in said notice within thirty days after receiving the same, then it
shall be open and free to any one under the provisions of this sec-

Priority.

tion, provided, also, that the said location or appropriation shall be
described by stakes, bushes, or other proper and visible marks,
metes, and bounds, which description shall be reduced to writing,
under the oath of some competent surveyor, and recorded at the
expense of the party locating or appropriating the same, in the office

Location to be
marked

of the clerk of the Circuit Court in the county wherein such lands
may be located; and, provided, also, that such location and appro-

Recording of
location

priation shall not injure, obstruct, or impede the free navigation of
such waters; and, provided, that no natural bar or bed of oysters
shall be so located or appropriated, and that six months' peaceable
possession of all locations of oyster grounds, under the laws of this
State, shall constitute a good and sufficient title thereto; but should

Location not to
obstruct naviga-
tion.

Natural bed or
bar not to be
located

any one, within the six months hereinbefore provided, be charged
with locating or appropriating any natural bed or bar hereinbefore
prohibited, the question may be at once submitted, by any person
interested, to the judge of the Circuit Court in the county where
such questions shall arise, who, after having given notice to the
parties interested, shall proceed to hear the testimony and decide the
case, and if decision be in favor of the party locating said five acres,
said decision shall be recorded with the original record of said five
acres, and shall in all cases be conclusive evidence of title thereto.

Trial of con-
tested locations

23, If any creek, cove, or inlet, not exceeding one hundred
yards at low water in breadth at its mouth, make into the lands, or
that if any creek, cove, or inlet, of greater width than one hundred
yards at low water mark, make into the lands, the owner or owners,
or other lawful occupant or occupants, shall have the exclusive right
to use such creek, cove, or inlet when the mouth of said creek, cove,
or inlet is one hundred yards or less in width, and when the said
creek, cove, or inlet is more than one hundred yards in width at its
mouth at low water, the said owner or owners, or other lawful occu-
pant or occupants, shall have exclusive right to use such creek, cove,
or inlet, so soon as said creek, cove, or inlet, in making into said
land or lands, shall become one hundred yards in width at low

Id s 24
Exclusive right
in certain
creeks, etc,
of owners.
22 Md 380