CHAP. 165.--An ACT to amend and re-enact section 3257 of the Code of Virginia and to repeal section 3163 of the Code of Virginia.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section thirty-two hundred and fifty-seven of the Code of Virginia be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Sec. 3257. Baylor survey; surveying and resurveying planting grounds and marking lines. The survey or surveys of the natural oyster beds, rocks and shoals of the Commonwealth, made in pursuance of an act of the general assembly of Virginia, entitled an act to protect the oyster industry of the Commonwealth, which act was approved on the twenty-ninth day of February, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, and acts amendatory thereof, or supplemental thereto, shall, until otherwise provided by law, continue to be held in all respects to be the survey or surveys defining and determining the natural oyster beds, rocks and shoals of the Commonwealth; and surveys and reports filed in accordance with the acts aforesaid shall be construed in all the courts of the Commonwealth to be conclusive evidence of the boundaries and limits of all the natural oyster beds, rocks and shoals lying within the waters of the counties wherein such surveys and reports are so filed, and further, that there are no natural oyster beds, rocks or shoals lying within the waters of the counties wherein such reports and surveys are filed other than those embraced in the surveys authorized by the acts aforesaid.

The commission of fisheries is hereby authorized and empowered to select and appoint, on such terms as may be agreed upon, any surveyor, or surveyors, to survey, or re-survey, any oyster planting grounds, either in his own or any other county, and to re-establish and permanently mark any line or lines of the said Baylor survey, of natural oyster rocks, which, in the judgment of the commission of fisheries, it may be necessary to define; or an application may be made to the commission of fisheries by ten citizens of the county to have any line or lines of the Baylor survey re-established and permanently marked, provided a bond and security be given to the commission of fisheries that the applicants will pay all costs for surveying and marking; and, provided further, that ten days' notice of such survey shall be given to all parties whose legal oyster tenures might be directly affected thereby; and if it should turn out that it was not necessary, in the opinion of the commission, to have said line or lines re-established, then all costs of the survey and marking shall be borne by the applicants; but if it shall appear that the Baylor survey had been encroached upon, then the cost shall be borne by the commission of fisheries and the bond given be void.

2. Section thirty-one hundred and sixty-three of the Code of Virginia is hereby repealed.

3. An emergency existing, this act shall be in force from its passage.