656

LAWS OF MARYLAND.

Fines to be
paid into trea-
sury.

tide, shall, upon warrant of the Comptroller, he
paid into the Treasury, and placed to the credit
of the Oyster Fund, and the Comptroller is here-
by required to state in his annual report, particu-
lary, the receipts and expenditures, on account of
said fund, and the balance standing to the credit
of the State at the time of making such report.

Owners of
land to have
exclusive priv-
ilege.

Sec. 28. And be it enacted, That the owner, or
owners, of any land bordering on any of the navi-
gable waters of this State, the lines of which ex-
tend into, and are covered by said waters, shall
have the exclusive privilege of using the same for
protecting, sowing, bedding, or depositing Oys-
ters, or other shell fish, within the lines of their
own land, and any owner or owners of land, lying
and bordering upon any of the waters of this
State, shall have power to locate and appropriate
in any of the waters adjoining his, her or their land,
five acres for the purpose of protecting, preserving,
depositing, bedding or sowing Oysters, or other
shell fish, and that any other citizen of the State,
shall have power to locate and appropriate five

In any waters.

acres in any waters in said State, not located or
appropriated; Provided, that ten days' notice in
writing shall be given the owner or owners, occu-
pant or occupants of lands bordering on said
water proposed to be located, that the owner or
owners, occupant or occupants, may have priority
of claim, and if they shall fail to locate or appro-
priate the water mentioned in said notice, within
ten days after receiving the same, then it shall be
open and free to any one under the provisions of
this section; Provided, also, that the said location.

Stakes or oth-
er marks.

or appropriation shall be described by stakes,
bushes or other proper and visible marks, metes
and bounds, which description shall be reduced
to writing, under the oath of some competent sur-
veyor, and recorded at the expense of the party
locating, or appropriating the same, in the office
of the Clerk of the Circuit Court for the county
wherein such lands may be located; and provided,
also, that such location and appropriation shall
not injure, obstruct, or impede the free navigation
of such waters; and provided, that no natural bar
or bed of Oysters shall be so located or appropri-

Peaceable pos-
session.

ated, and that six months' peaceable possession of
all locations of Oyster grounds, under the laws of