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Suspected persons found in possession of venison, &c. and not satisfactorily accounting for it.
Penalty.
In case they cannot be convicted, how the justice may proceed.
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14. If any deer, or the head, skin, or other part thereof, or any snare or engine for the taking of deer, shall be found in the possession of any person or on the premises of any person with his knowledge, and such person, being taken, or summoned before a justice of the peace, shall not satisfy the justice that he came lawfully by such deer, or the head, skin, or other part thereof, or had a lawful occasion for such snare or engine, and did not keep the same for any unlawful purpose, he shall, on conviction by the justice, forfeit and pay any sum not exceeding twenty pounds; and if any such person shall not under the said provisions be liable to conviction, then, for the discovery of the party who actually killed or stole such deer, the justice, at his discretion, as the evidence given and the circumstances of the case shall require, may summon before him every person through whose hands such deer, or the head, skin, or other part thereof, shall appear to have passed; and if the person from whom the same shall have been first received, or who shall have had possession thereof, shall not satisfy the justice that he came lawfully by the same, he shall, on conviction by the justice, be liable to the payment of such sum of money as is herein-before last mentioned.
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