CHAP. 509.--An ACT to amend and re-enact section 3160 of the Code of Virginia.

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

Sec. 3160. The commission of fisheries is hereby empowered to re-establish, relocate and remark all lines of the Baylor survey which cannot be otherwise relocated because of the loss or destruction of marks which heretofore existed. For the purpose aforesaid it shall have the right to employ surveyors, to examine witnesses and to make physical examinations of the grounds to be resurveyed after having first given notice of the time and place of such hearing or examination and of the ground or grounds, line or lines to be relocated, re-established or examined by an advertisement published once a week for two consecutive weeks in some newspaper published in the county in which such ground or grounds, line or lines are situated and by posting notices for at least two weeks at the front door of the court house of the county or counties in which said line or lines are located; if no newspaper is published in such county, then such notice shall he published in a newspaper published in the nearest county in which a paper is published.

From any finding of said commission relocating or re-establishing any such line or lines, ground or grounds any five or more citizens of the Commonwealth who think a mistake has been made in such relocation may by petition, filed within ninety (90) days from such finding, to the circuit court of the county in which such ground is situated, have a resurvey or a rehearing but the determination of the said circuit court shall be final. Should the petitioners prevail the cost of such rehearing shall be borne by the State and paid out of the oyster fund, but should such petitioners not prevail the cost shall be borne by them and they shall upon filing their petition give a bond in a penalty to be fixed by the court or judge thereof in vacation conditioned to pay all cost that may be awarded against them, such bond shall have sureties approved by the clerk of the court in which such petition is filed.

When such a ground or grounds, line or lines shall have been re-established and relocated, the same shall be taken and accepted as conclusive evidence in all courts of the Commonwealth that the grounds so ascertained to be natural oyster rocks, beds or shoals are such; and that all grounds lying outside of such boundaries are grounds open to rental under the laws of this State. Plats shall be made under the direction of the said commission showing the re-establishment of such lines and shall be recorded in the appropriate clerk's offices.

Said commission shall have authority to declare closed for certain periods those public oyster grounds which it decides should be given rest for recuperation or upon which the commission deposits seeds or shells or may otherwise cultivate.