34 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [Ch. 4]

tax to take oysters with such tongs above the said line during
the open season provided for in the waters above said line.

SEC. 5. Permit required for buying or carrying seed oysters
and prescribing penalties. It shall be lawful for any citizen of
Maryland or of Virginia, after having obtained a permit as
hereinafter provided, to buy and carry out of the Potomac
River to be planted in the waters of either Maryland or Vir-
ginia, oysters whose shells measure less than two and one-half
inches from hinge to mouth taken from natural rocks, beds
and shoals in said river above a straight line drawn from the
north point at the mouth of Upper Machodoc Creek, in the
county of King George, Virginia, to Lower Cedar point, in
Charles county, Maryland, during the period between the first
day of January and the first day of May in any year. The
said permit shall be obtained from any oyster inspector, or any
officer in charge of a Virginia or Maryland oyster police boat,
for each boat or vessel to be used in carrying said oysters as
aforesaid, and shall state the name and tonnage (if registered
in the custom house) of the boat or vessel, the name of the
owner and the master thereof, and to what waters in Maryland
or Virginia such cargo of oysters is to be carried. Before such
permit shall be granted the owner or master of such boat or
vessel shall take and subscribe to an oath before said officer that
the said boat or vessel will not be used for carrying said oysters
to any State other than Maryland or Virginia, or for any other
purpose than for planting the same in the waters of one or the
other of the said States, and that he will not sell said oysters
to any other person for the purpose of carrying the same to
any State other than Maryland or Virginia. The oath so
taken and subscribed, together with a memorandum of the per-
mit issued, shall be returned by said officer to the commander
of the State Fishery Force of Maryland, if said officer be a
Maryland official, or to the secretary of the Commission of
Fisheries of Virginia, if said officer be a Virginia official, to
be filed by him in his office. Blank forms for such oath and
permit shall be furnished to the respective oyster inspectors,
and the respective captains of the oyster police boats, by the
Comptroller of Maryland and the Auditor of Public Accounts
of Virginia. For administering said oath and issuing said
permit, the inspector or officer issuing same shall be entitled
to receive from the applicant a fee of twenty-five cents. The
owner or master of any boat or vessel found carrying or buy-
ing such seed oysters without such permit shall be fined not
less than twenty dollars nor more than one hundred dollars.
And any owner or master of any boat or vessel violating the