Section 10. No person, except as hereinafter provided, shall remove, obliterate or cover up any monument or mark designating a boundary line of a town. The county commissioners of the county where any such monument or mark is wholly or partly situated may grant to any person making written application permission to remove, cover up or obliterate the same, first making provision for preserving the exact location of the original boundary or mark by causing proper witness marks to be set up, or other means taken, which shall, with proper designation and measurement, indicate the position of the original mark or monument. The commissioners shall cause a full description and designation of such witness marks and monuments so made and set up to be recorded in the office of the town clerk of the contiguous towns, and a copy of such description to be forwarded to the state secretary. This section shall not apply to monuments and marks designating boundary lines of the commonwealth.