404 ARTICLE 72.

Tonging.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 1. 1912, sec. 1. 1904, sec. 1. 1894, ch. 380, sec. 1. 1900, ch. 380.
1910, ch. 413, sec. 1 (p. 205). 1920, ch. 680. 1927, ch. 463, sec. 1.

1. Any resident of this State desiring to catch oysters with rakes or
tongs for sale in any of the waters of this State shall first obtain by appli-
cation to the Clerk of the Circuit Court for the county wherein he may
reside a separate license for every person to be employed on such boat, and
such license shall have effect from the first day of September, in the year
which it may have been obtained, to the fifteenth day of April, inclusive,
next succeeding; provided that any laws either local or public, now in
effect or which may become in effect curtailing the open season provided
above, such local or public general laws shall prevail, except in Talbot
County and in the waters of the Choptank River used in common by the
residents of Talbot and Dorchester Counties. Such license shall not au-
thorize the taking or catching of oysters in any creek, cove, river, inlet, bay
or sound within the limits of any county other than that wherein the
license shall have been granted; and that the boundaries of the counties on
navigable waters shall be strictly construed so as not to permit the resi-
dents of either county to take or catch oysters beyond the middle of the
dividing channel; provided, that nothing in this section shall be so con-
strued as to prevent the citizens of Queen Anne's and Kent Counties from
using the waters of Chester River in common, or the citizens of Dorchester
and Wicomico Counties from using the waters of Nanticoke River in com-
mon, or the citizens of Queen Anne's and Talbot Counties from using the
waters of the Wye River and the mouth thereof in common, or the citizens
of Dorchester and Talbot Counties and bona fide residents of the Fourth
Election District of Caroline County who shall have resided in said dis-
trict not less than one year next preceding from using the waters of the
Choptank River in common; provided, however, that the County Commis-
sioners shall be authorized to give special permission to any woman who
has no visible means of support to take and catch oysters without license.
Provided, that the open season for the taking or catching of oysters in the
Tred Avon River and the tributaries in Talbot County shall be from the
first day of September to the fifteenth day of April, each year, both dates
inclusive.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 2. 1912, sec. 2. 1904, sec. 2. 1894, ch. 380, sec. 2. 1890, ch. 380.
1910, ch. 413, sec. 2 (p. 206). 1927, ch. 127, sec. 2.

2. Each and every license issued in conformity to the provision of
Section 1 of this Article shall state the name, color, age and residence of
the person to whom the license is to be granted; the number thereof, and
the county in which the same is to be used, and every applicant for such
license, shall pay to the clerks of the circuit court when such license may be
granted, and before the issuing and delivery of the same, five dollars, the
clerk to receive twenty-five cents for each and every such license as a fee
for issuing the same, including administering the oath when required.
One-half of the amount received for such license shall be paid by the clerk