Browsing: Legal Papers of John Adams, Volume 2

“[W]hosoever shall hereafter erect or build any dam across any such river or stream where the salmon, shad, alewives or other fish usually pass up into the natural ponds, to cast their spawn, shall make a sufficient passage-way for the fish to pass up such river or stream, through or round such dam, and shall keep it open, for the free passage of the fish, from the first day of April to the last day of May, annually; and all the owners or occupants of any mill-dam, or other dams heretofore erected and made across any such river or stream where the fish can't conveniently pass over, shall make a sufficient way, either round or through such dam, for the passage of such fish, at or before the first day of September next, and after that to keep such passage-way open from the first day of April to the last day of May, annually, on pain that every person offending, in any of the particulars aforesaid, shall forfeit and pay the sum of fifty pounds for each offence. . . . [T]he owners or occupants of such dam or dams shall allow sufficient water-passage round, through or over such dams, for the passage of such fish or their young spawn, in the season of their going down such rivers or streams, on penalty of forfeiting the sum of fifty pounds for every offence. . . . [T]he several fines and penalties arising by virtue of this act, shall be sued for and recovered in any court of record proper to try the same, by any person that shall prosecute and sue for the same; one half of such sum to be to and for the use of the prosecutor, and the other half to be to and for the use of the poor of the town where the offence shall be committed.”