ALBERT C. RITCHIE, GOVERNOR. 405

Public General Laws be and the same are hereby repealed
and re-enacted as follows:

SEC. 558. It shall be unlawful for any person or persons
to trap, catch or kill any otter or muskrat within the State
of Maryland, or have same in possession if trapped, caught
or killed within this State, between the fifteenth day of March
and the first day of January, both dates inclusive, in every
year after passage of this Act. Nothing herein contained,
however, to prohibit the possession of the skins of such ani-
mals for business purposes, when dry and cured; provided
that such green skins can be had in possession until the twenty-
fifth day of March, in order to allow skins caught late in the
season to dry out, but any person found with green or un-
cured skins after said March twenty-fifth shall be guilty of a
violation of this section and subject to its penalties.

No person or persons shall shoot at or in any manner kill
or catch, except by gigging or trapping, any muskrat or otter,
and it shall be unlawful for any person in Maryland to dig
for any muskrat or dig into or in any manner molest or de-
stroy the roof or any part of a muskrat house or den. And
it shall further be unlawful for any person or corporation to
have within his or its possession any muskrat or muskrat hide
or skin that has been shot at or into or killed in any manner
except by trapping or gigging; and any muskrat hide per-
forated with small holes having the appearance of shot or bul-
let holes, shall be prima facie evidence that it was a muskrat
so shot or killed. And any person found guilty before a
Justice of the Peace, of killing nmskrats in any manner, ex-
cept as herein provided, shall be fined the sum of one hundred
($100.00) dollars and upon failure to pay same shall be im-
prisoned in the County Jail not exceeding thirty days or until
such fine and costs are paid.

SEC. 59. And be it further enacted, That any person vio-
lating any of the provisions of the preceding section, unless
the fine is therein specifically provided for, shall be guilty of
a misdemeanor, and upon conviction before any Justice of the
Peace, shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars ($25.00),
nor more than fifty dollars ($50.00), as above, for each and
every animal or skin trapped caught or had in possession
contrary to the provision of Section 58, "one-half of all fines
for violation of this Act, shall be paid to the informer, and the
remaining one-half of the fine shall be paid over to the State