CHAP. 504.--An ACT to authorize the board of fisheries to readjust the Baylor survey on the ocean side of the counties of Accomac and Northampton, and include therein any omitted natural rocks.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That one or more residents of said counties may apply to the oyster inspector of the district wherein any oyster ground on the ocean side of said counties outside of the Baylor survey is located, stating that such ground has not been assigned, and is not now under lease according to the laws of this State, and that said ground comprises more than five acres of contiguous natural oyster rock upon which oysters now grow naturally in sufficient quantities to make the taking of the same profitable in the manner that such oysters may be lawfully taken, and describing the location of said ground with such certainty that the same may be readily found, and praying that the same may be included in the Baylor survey, and made subject to the laws governing oyster ground within the said survey, and upon receipt by the proper inspector of any application under this section he shall refer the same to the board of fisheries.

2. Upon receipt by said board of any application under section one, and before acting thereon, said board shall give notice of such application, what ground will be affected thereby, and when and where the same will be acted on by advertisement for four successive weeks in some newspaper published in the county wherein said ground is, if there be a paper published in such county, and by directing the inspector from whom such application came to post copies of such advertisement at the front door of the courthouse of said county, and at three or more public places in the vicinity of the ground; and said board shall permit one or more residents of said counties to enter themselves as contestants and to defend said application.

3. Said board shall take up such application at the time and place named in such notice, and after such investigation and examination as they deem proper determine whether the ground, or any part thereof, naturally grows oysters in sufficient quantities to make the taking of the same profitable to practical oystermen in the manner that such oysters may now be lawfully taken; and so much thereof as said board shall determine does naturally grow oysters in such quantities, if the same contains not less than five contiguous acres, and is not held under assignment or lease, said board shall cause to be properly ascertained and platted in the same way that public oyster grounds of this State were platted, and shall declare such ground to be natural rock, and shall cause the same to be added to the public oyster grounds of the county wherein the same is located in its proper place upon the chart of public grounds filed in the clerk's office of the county court of said county, and when so added said chart shall be conclusive evidence in all the courts of this Commonwealth that said ground is natural rock, bed, or shoal.

4. All costs occasioned by any application under section one, if uncontested, shall be borne by the applicant or applicants; and if such application be contested, all additional costs shall be borne either by the applicant or the contestant, and, as between the applicant and contestant, said board shall award costs in favor of the party substantially prevailing.

5. Nothing in this act shall permit an examination, survey, or platting of any grounds which have been assigned to any resident of said counties for the purpose of planting and propagating oysters thereon or in any manner impair any vested interest in such grounds acquired by any resident under the laws of this State regulating the assignment of oyster
planting grounds.

6. All acts or parts of acts in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

7. This act shall be in force from its passage.