perty of the people, subject to the provisions hereinafter made to encourage the discovery thereof. 1 R. S., 557, § 2. § 254. All mines, of whatever description, other than mines of gold and silver, now or hereafter discovered, upon any lands owned by a citizen of the United States, the ore of which, upon an average, contains two equal third parts or more in value of copper, tin, iron and lead, or any of these metals, shall belong to the owner of such land. 1 R. S., 557, § 3. § 255. The discoverer and subsequent proprietor of any mine of gold or silver are exempt from paying to the state any part of the proceeds thereof, for the term of twenty-one years from the time of giving notice of such discovery in the manner hereinafter directed. Ib., § 4. § 256. No person discovering a mine of gold or silver within this state shall work the same until he gives written notice thereof to the secretary of state, describing particularly the nature and situation of the mine. Such notices shall be registered in a book to be kept by the secretary for that purpose. Ib., § 5. § 257. After the expiration of the term above specified, the discoverer of the mine, or his repre sentatives, shall be preferred in any contract, for the working of such mine, made with the legislature or under its authority. 1 R. S., 555, § 6. tion. § 258. Nothing contained in this title shall affect Qualifica any grants heretofore made by the legislature to the discoverers of mines, nor be construed to give any person a right to break up or enter upon the lands of any other person, or of the people of this state, or to work any mine in such lands, unless the consent, in writing, of the owner thereof, or of the commissioners of the land office, when the lands belong to the people of this state, be previously obtained. on public lands. § 259. If any person, under pretense of any Intruders claim, inconsistent with the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the state, intrudes upon any of the waste or ungranted lands of the state, the district. attorney of the county must immediately report the same to the governor, who shall thereupon, by a written order, direct the sheriff of the county to remove the intruder; and, if resistance to the execution of the order is made or threatened, the sheriff may call to his aid the power of the county, as in cases of resistance to the writs of the people. 1 R. S., 5th ed., 84, §§ 4, 5. by taxation and assess § 260. The state may acquire title to property Acquisition by taxation and assessment in the modes autho- ment rized by statute. By right of eminent domain. § 261. It may acquire, or authorize others to acquire, title to property, real or personal, for public use, by right of eminent domain, in the cases and in the mode authorized by statute. therein. II. Navigation. III. Floating lumber. IV. Wrecks. V. Sandy Hook pilots. VI. Hellgate pilots. VII. New York port-wardens. VIII. New York harbor-masters. IX. Special regulations respecting the port of New York. X. Albany harbor-master. ARTICLE I. GENERAL PROVISIONS RESPECTING PUBLIC WATERS AND OBSTRUCTIONS THEREIN. SECTION 262. What waters are public ways. 263. Certain streams. 264. Penalty for felling trees into public waters. 265. Use of nets in the channel of the Hudson above New York city. 266. Use of nets, &c., in the Hudson, out of the channel. 267. Obstructions in the port of New York, ters are public ways. § 262. Navigable waters, and all streams of suf- What wa ficient capacity to transport the products of the country, are public ways for the purposes of navigation and of such transportation. Brown v. Scofield, 8 Barb., 239; and see 20 Johns., 90; streams. § 263. The following streams are declared public Certain ways by special statutes : felling trees § 264. Whoever cuts or causes to be cut down Penalty for any tree, so that it falls into any stream declared into public by statute to be a public way, and does not remove waters. Use of nets, &c., in the channel of above New York city. it therefrom within twenty-four hours thereafter, is liable to a penalty of five dollars for every tree. 1 R. S., 1051, § 130. § 265. No person shall use, in the channel of the the Hudson river Hudson between the city of New York and the state dam at Fort Edward, any set-nets, weirs, hoop-nets or pikes, or place there any hedge, stake, post, pole, or other fixture, for any purpose whatever, under penalty of one hundred and fifty dollars. Use of nets, &c., in the Hudson, out of the channel. 2 R. S., 97, § 37, 38. $266. Hoop-nets, pikes or set-nets (if constructed with buoys not more than four feet in length and two feet in diameter) may be used for catching fish in the river Hudson, on and along the flats and shores of the river, and the necessary poles, and other fixtures, for use of the same, may be set, so that the navigation of the river be not thereby obstructed or endangered. But none such shall be used in any place where, prior to the 11th day of April, one thousand eight hundred and fifteen, it was the practice to draw seines. Whoever uses any net or weir, or sets any pole, or other fixture, in any part of that river, out of the channel and within those limits, other than those above permitted to be used, is liable to a penalty of twenty-five dollars for every offense, and is guilty of a misde meanor. 1 R. S., 98, §3; 97, § 40. |