DORCHESTER COUNTY. 2325-

tongs, in the said Choptank River, shall first obtain, by application to the
clerk of the circuit court for said counties, respectively, a license therefor;
and such license shall have effect from the first day of June in the year
in which it may be obtained to the first day of June succeeding, and shall
authorize the use of said canoe or boat in taking or catching oysters on
either side of the dividing channel of said river, for sale to any person;
provided, that nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to con-
flict with the rights of owners or occupants of lands bordering on said,
river secured and protected under existing laws.

P. L. L., 1888, Art. 10, sec. 253. 1886, ch. 206. 1894, ch. 456. 1900, ch. 693, sec. 253.

1902, ch. 184, sec. 253.

423. It shall be lawful for the citizens of Dorchester County to catch
oysters with scoops, scrapes or dredges in boats owned by said citizens-
not exceeding seven tons gross tonnage, according to the rules of custom-
house measurement, such measurements to be ascertained as hereinafter
provided, to take oysters in the following waters, namely: In Honga
River, Hooper Straits, Holland Straits, Tar Bay and that part of Fishing-
Bay which lies to the southward and eastward of a straight line drawn
from Bishop's Head Point to the lower end of Clay Island where the-
light house formerly stood in Dorchester County, and adjoining the
Wicomico line up to Sandy Island, and in the waters of the Great Chop-
tank River, where it is now lawful to take oysters with scoops, scrapes or
dredges, but no boat licensed under Sections 425 and 426 shall catch
oysters within two hundred yards of the shore; and the County Commis-
sioners shall furnish two suitable buoys, and the captain of the police
boat guarding these waters shall keep said buoys anchored on said line
from Bishop's Head Point to Clay Island Point where the light house
formerly stood, and the use of scrapes and similar instruments for the-
taking or catching oysters north of this line are3 hereby prohibited; pro-
vided, that it shall be lawful for citizens of Dorchester County to catch
oysters with scoops, scrapes or dredges in the aforesaid waters of said
county in boats owned by said citizens which were licensed for the oyster
season ending March 15, 1900, whose custom-house measurement does-
not exceed ten and fifty-two one-hundredth gross tons according to rules of
the custom-house measurements, such.measurement to be ascertained as
is hereafter provided for boats of seven tons gross tonnage.

Jones v. State, 68 Md. 613.

P. L. L., 1888, Art. 10, sec. 254. 1886, ch. 206. 1900, ch. 693, sec 254.
1902, ch. 184, sec. 254.

424. It shall not be lawful for any dunnage boat, canoe or vessel em-
ployed to catch oysters with scoops, scrapes or dredges in the waters of
Dorchester County, and all timbers more than five and one-half inches-
in depth used in construction of any said boat to which her bottom is
fastened, or any and all other materials used to make the space between
the ceiling and the bottom planks over five and one-half inches, and all
ceiling over two inches thick, and any and all materials used between