2156 WORCESTER COUNTY. [ART. 24.

county, and also pay the expense of said commission, not to
exceed ten dollars in any one case; and in case said commission
shall not find a rock in said ground so planted, more than twenty
feet square in any one place, then the informer shall be held
bound to pay the expense of said commission, which may be col-
lected as all other claims are collected; or the county commis-
sioners may require the informer to deposit the amount required
to pay said commission, not to exceed ten dollars in any one case.

1888, ch 346.

173. It shall not be lawful for any person, other than the
owner, his agent or employee, to work in or among any planted
oysters, or within the stakes, bushes or buoys, or where oysters
are known to be planted, with any tongs, rakes or any other
instrument by which oysters can be taken from the bottom.
Any person caught at work on any planted oysters in the
Synepuxent bay or its tributaries, without proper authority from
the owner, upon sufficient proof and conviction before a jus-
tice of the peace, or the circuit court for said county, shall be
fined not less than twenty dollars nor more than one hundred dol-
lars for each offence, and shall stand committed till fines and costs
are paid.

1876, ch. 277.

174. No person shall catch, take or remove any shells or
oysters from the natural beds in the waters of Synepuxent bay
or its tributaries, with scrapes, scoops, dredges or drags, or with
any instrument in the working of which any other than hand
power is used; and any person violating any of the provisions of
this section shall, upon indictment and conviction thereof, be
fined not less than fifty nor more than three hundred dollars for

each offence, with costs.

1880, ch. 214.

175. It shall be lawful for any citizen of said county to stake
off, not exceeding five acres in any one place in the waters of
Synepuxent bay and its tributaries, except upon the natural rocks

of said bay and its tributaries, and to plant and lay down oysters
in said waters so staked off; and no person except the owner of
said planted or laid down oysters, or his employee, shall work
upon or among said oysters, or in the waters so staked off; pro-