478 OYSTERS: [ART. 72

be charged with locating or appropriating any natural bed or
bar hereinbefore prohibited, the question may be at once sub-
mitted by any person interested to the judge of the circuit court
for the county where such questions shall arise, who, after having
given notice to the parties interested, shall proceed to hear the
testimony and decide the case; and if his decision be in favor of
the party locating said five acres, said decision shall be recorded
with the original record of said five acres, and shall in all cases
be conclusive evidence of title thereto; provided also, that if
any stakes or bushes used as bounds shall be removed by accident
or design, it shall not excuse any person from wrongfully taking
such oysters, if he knew the grounds to have been located and
appropriated; but any title or pretended title to more than tive
acres, or otherwise contrary to this section, held or claimed by
any person, is hereby declared to be fraudulent and void; pro-
vided, that no non-resident of this State shall be entitled to avail
himself of the provisions of this section, whether he be sole or
part owner of any land in this State; and in case of the death
of any citizen who may have located and appropriated any lot
under the provisions of this section, his executors or administra-
tors shall have the exclusive use, possession and control of such
lot as fully as the person so dying had, for the purpose of pro-
tecting, cultivating and removing the oysters planted on said lot
for the period of three years from the date of the death of the
person appropriating such lot; and any person or persons taking
or attempting to take oysters thus planted or bedded shall be
deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction before a
justice of the peace trying the case shall be fined a sum not less
than fifty dollars nor more than one hundred dollars, and im-
prisoned in the house of correction for a period of three to six
months, one-half of said fine to be paid to the informer, and the
other half to be paid to the county commissioners for the use of
the public schools.

Jackson v. Bennett, 80 Md. 77. Powell v. Wilson, 85 Md. 856. Handy
v. Maddox, 85 Md. 548-9.

1894, ch. 380.

47. If any creek, cove or inlet not exceeding one hundred
yards at low water in breadth at its mouth make into the land, or
if any creek, cove or inlet of greater width than one hundred