1827

LAWS OF MARYLAND.

CHAP 181.	tricts, and having allowed one district to each guager, that they shall thereafter perform their duties progressively through said district, interchanging the same on every Mon- day morning, and that it shall and may be lawful for either of said guagers upon application being made to him for that purpose, to guage and inspect within any pther than his allot- ed district, provided the quantity of liquor ready to be guaged or inspected, shall make it necessary for him to do so in or- der to prevent delay; and it shall be the duty of each of the
Make returns on oath.	guagers aforesaid, to return once in every six months, or oath or affirmation to the Governor and Council, an accurate ac- count of the number of each denomination of casks containing liquors by him guaged or inspected, distinguishing those con- taining domestic distilled liquors from all others.-
Mark B.	SEC. 3. And be it enacted, That the guagers aforesaid shall mark all merchantable casks containing domestic distilled li- quors, with the letter B, with a marking iron on the bilge near
Cask purchased	the bung of each cask, to denote Baltimore inspection, and every cask containing such liquor to be apssed as merchanta- ble, must be round at the bilge and heads, the staves thereof to be seasoned white oak, free from any injurious portion of sap wood, and not less than half an inch thick at the thinest part, and not more than three quarters of an inch at the thick- est part thereof, and to be tight and secured with sufficient number of good hoops, if of iron six, and if of wood, not less than twelve good and sufficient hoops on all barrels, and at least twelve good and sufficient hoops on all double barrels and hogsheads; and if any cask containing such liquor shall be found insufficient in any of those respects by either of said
Coopered	guagers, he shall direct it to be coopered, or other casks sub- stituted therefor, at the expense of the owner or seller, and if
Forfeit for fraud	any cask containing domestic liquors submitted to be guaged or inspected, shall be found to have been fraudulently made,
Guaging instru- ments.	the owner or seller thereof, or his agent so submitting such cask, shall forfeit the cask to the use of the state.
Mark of capacity of contents Standard of proof spirit Mark of contents declared under pe- nalty Certificate of quan- tity	SEC, 4. And be it enacted, That each of the guagers afore- said, shall procure and use a correct set of gauging instru- ments and Dycus's hydrometer, which he shall keep in good order; and as soon as he has ascertained the capacity of any cask, and the strength of the domestic distilled liquors con- tained therein, he shall distinctly mark with marking irons the capacity on the bilge, near the bung, and prefixing the initial letter of his surname, he shall likewise mark the num- ber of gallons of proof spirit contained in said cask on the head thereof, and for this purpose the standard of proof spirit is hereby fixed at eighty-five degrees of the aforesaid hydro- meter, and all marks that shall be made by either of the guag- ers aforesaid, determining the quantity of proof domestic dis- tilled liquors contained in any cask, shall be defaced thereon so soon as the same shall have been emptied, under a penalty of five dollars to the use of the informer, to be paid by the owner or person having possession of said cask or casks, and whenever it may be required by the seller or his agent, the