4458 ARTICLE 20.

command, together with the crew, and to seize the said boat or vessel,
together with all her equipments, and bring the same before a judge or
a justice of the peace for Somerset county, to be dealt with according to
the provisions of this act; provided, that nothing in this act shall be con-
strued to prohibit vessels from seeking harbor in any of the waters of the
State.

1894, ch. 592, sec. 4.

277. On information under oath of any violations of the provisions of
this act, to any justice of the peace for Somerset county, the said justice
shall forthwith issue his warrant to the sheriff or any constable of said
county, requiring the officer to whom the said writ shall be directed to
summons a posse comitatus, if necessary, and proceed at once to arrest
the party or parties alleged to have been engaged in violating any of the
provisions of this act, and forthwith bring him or them before any justice
of the peace for Somerset county, who shall require full and sufficient
bond for their appearance before the Circuit Court; but if the accused
shall not claim a jury trial, it shall be the duty of the justice to immedi-
ately give the case a hearing, and upon conviction of the accused, impose
the punishment and fines prescribed in section 275 of this article.

1894, ch. 592, sec. 5.

278. It shall be the duty of the sheriff, constables and officers of the-
State Fishery Force to arrest any person or persons found dredging or
charged under oath, as provided in section 277, of violating this act, or
any of the provisions of this act, and bring said person or persons before-
a justice of the peace in said county, to be dealt with as herein provided.

1894, ch. 592, sec. 7.

279. This act shall not go into effect and be operative until the fif-
teenth day of March in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-five, and
not then unless it shall have received the assent of and be approved by a,
majority of the legal and duly qualified votes of Somerset county, which
shall be ascertained at the election to be held in Somerset county on the
Tuesday after the first Monday in November, eighteen hundred and.
ninety-four, for the selection of a representative for the first congressional
district of Maryland, to the United States House of Representatives; and
in order to ascertain the sense of such voters as to whether this act shall
go into effect and be operative or not, the sheriff of Somerset county shall,
at least two weeks before said election, give notice by advertisement in all
the newspapers then printed and published in Somerset county, of the
passage of this act and its provisions for submitting its adoption or not
to the approval of the majority of the legal qualified voters of said county
who may cast their ballots at said election; and said sheriff is also hereby
authorized and directed to have printed and distributed at the several,
polling places in the several election districts of Somerset county, such
number of ballots, with the words printed on them, "For the act pro-
hibiting the catching of oysters with scoop, scrape, dredge or any similar