1056 DORCHESTER COUNTY. [ART. 10.

ize 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 con-
strued as to conflict with the rights of owners or occupants of
lands bordering on said river secured and protected under existing
laws.

1886, ch. 806.

253. It shall be lawful for citizens of Dorchester county to
catch oysters with scoops or dredges in boats owned by aaid
citizens, not exceeding ten tons burthen, according to rules of
custom house measurement, in Honga river, Hooper's straits,
Holland straits, Tar bay, and that part of Fishing bay which lies.
to the southward and westward of a straight line drawn from the
middle of the. mouth of Tedius creek to Clay island light-house,
and in all the waters to the southward and eastward of Clay
island, in Dorchester county, and adjoining the Wicomico lines,
up to Sandy island, and in the waters of the Great Choptank
river where it is now lawful to take oysters with scrapes or
dredges; but no boat licensed under sections 255, 256 and 257,
shall catch oysters within two hundred yards of the shore; and the
county commissioners shall furnish two suitable buoys, and the
captain of the police sloop guarding these waters shall keep said
buoys anchored on said line from Tedius creek to Clay island
light-house.

Ibid.

254. It shall not be lawful for any dnnnaged boat, canoe or
vessel to be employed to catch oysters with scoops or light dredges
in the waters of Dorchester county ; and all timbers more than an
average of five inches in depth used in the construction of said
boat, to which her bottom is fastened, or any and all other ma-
terials used to make the average space between the ceiling and
bottom planks over five and one-half inches, and all ceiling over
two inches thick, and any or all materials used between ceiling
and deck to decrease custom-house tonnage, shall be considered
dunnage; and the school commissioners for said county shall, in
August of each year, appoint some competent citizen of said
county to examine all boats over seven tons (custom-house measure-
ment), prior to the granting by said clerk of the circuit court for
said county to such boats of a license to catch oysters with scoops.