1042 OYSTERS—UNLAWFUL DREDGING——TONGING. [ART. 72.

Dredging In Exempted Waters.

1886, ch. 296, sec. 36.

13. If any boat or vessel shall be seen sailing on any of the
waters of this State which are exempted from dredging by law
in the same manner in which they sail to take or catch oysters
with scoop, scrape, drag or dredge, or similar instrument, the
said boat or vessel shall be pursued by any officer authorized
by this article to make arrests; and if said boat or vessel appre-
hended by said officer shall be found to have on board any wet
oysters, or the dredges, or dredge-line or deck wet, indicating
the taking of oysters at said time, and properly equipped for taking
or catching oysters with scoop, scrape, drag or dredge, or similar
instrument, such fact shall be prima facie evidence that
the said boat or vessel has been used in violation of sections 1-43,
and it shall be the duty of the officer to arrest the person in com-
mand of said boat or vessel, and to seize the said boat or vessel,
together with all her equipments, and bring the same before a
judge or justice of the peace of the county having jurisdiction,
or, if in the Chesapeake bay, in the county most accessible or con-
venient, to be dealt with according to law; provided, that nothing
in this article shall be construed to prohibit vessels from seeking
harbor in any waters of this State.

Tonging.

1886, ch. 296, sec. 17.

14. Any resident of this State desiring to use any canoe or
other boat in catching or taking 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 license therefor, and such license shall have effect
from the first day of September in the year in which it may
be obtained, to the twenty-fifth day of April, inclusive, next
succeeding; provided, that such license shall not authorize the
use of said canoe or boat in taking or catching 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 counties bordering on navigable waters
shall be strictly construed so as not to permit the residents of
either county to take or catch oysters beyond the middle of the