ART. 72] LOCATING OYSTER LOTS. 477

pensation of said clerk shall not exceed seven hundred dollars
for acting as clerk to the commander.

Locating Oyster Lots,

1894, ch. 380.

46., The owner of any land bordering on any of the naviga-
ble waters of this State, the lines of which extend into and are
covered by said waters, shall have the exclusive privilege of using
the same for protecting, sowing, bedding or depositing oysters or
other shell fish within the lines of his own land; and any owner
of land lying and bordering upon any of the waters of this
State shall have power to locate and appropriate in any of the
waters adjoining his lands one lot of five acres for the purpose
of protecting, preserving, depositing, bedding or Bowing oysters
or other shell fish; and any male or female citizen of full age,
of the county wherein he or she resides, shall have power to
locate and appropriate, and hold one lot of five acres, and no
more, in any waters in this State not located or appropriated;
provided, thirty days' notice in writing shall be given the owner
or occupant of land bordering on said waters proposed to be
located, that the owner or occupant may have priority of claim;
and if such owner or occupant shall fail to locate or appropriate
the water mentioned in said notice within thirty days after receiv-
ing the same, then it shall be open and free to any one, under the
provisions of this section; provided also, that the said location
or appropriation shall be described by stakes, bushes and with
the name of the owner on a board fastened to a pole or stake on
or within the appropriated oyster land, or by the proper and
visible 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 of the clerk of the circuit court for the county
wherein such land may be located; and provided also, that such
location and appropriation shall not injure, obstruct or impede
the free navigation of said waters; and provided, that no natural
bar or bed of oysters shall be so located or appropriated, and that
twelve 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 any one within twelve months