ART. 71.] OYSTERS. 479

17. Any citizen of any county bordering on the waters of this
State, may locate and appropriate in any of the waters thereof
any area not exceeding one acre in extent, for the purpose of
depositing, bedding or sowing oysters or other shell fish; Pro-
vided, that the said location or appropriation shall be described
by stakes, bushes or other proper marks or metes and bounds;
which description shall be reduced to writing under the oath,
and recorded at the expense of the party, in the office of the
clerk of the Circuit Court of the proper county, and that the
said location and appropriation shall not injure, obstruct or
impede the free navigation of any navigable water; but no such
location or appropriation shall be made to interfere with the
rights reserved by the two preceding sections.

18. If any person shall catch or take any oysters or shell fish
within the limits of any depot of any citizen of this State as
described in the three next preceding sections, without the
permission of the owner, such person shall be deemed guilty of
a misdemeanor, and if a free person, on conviction thereof, shall
be fined not exceeding fifty dollars or imprisoned, or both, in the
discretion of the court in which he shall be convicted, and if
such offender be a slave, on conviction thereof before a justice
of the peace, he shall be whipped not exceeding thirty-nine
lashes, as said justice shall think fit.

19. Any person against whom a justice of the peace may
render a judgment under this article, either to pay a penalty or
of condemnation of property, may appeal from the judgment
of such justice in the same manner as if the judgment were for
a common debt; but no execution or sale shall be stayed unless
the party appealing give bond to the State for double the value
of the thing in controversy, with security to be approved by
the justice rendering the judgment, or the clerk of the court to
which the appeal is made, with condition to prosecute his appeal
with effect, or to pay the value of the property condemned or
the amount of fine imposed, as the case may be, with interest
and costs.

20. All fines imposed by this article shall be paid one-half to
the informer, and the other half to the county commissioners of
the county where the judgment is rendered, for the use of the
county.