ALBERT C. RITCHIE, GOVERNOR. 915

to Lower Cedar Point, in Charles County, Maryland, during the
period between the first day of January and the first day of
May in any year. The said permit shall be obtained from any
oyster inspector, or any officer in charge of a Virginia or Mary-
land oyster police boat, for each boat or vessel to be used in
carrying said oysters as aforesaid, and shall state the name and
tonnage (if registered in the custom house) of the boat or vessel,
the name of the owner and the master thereof, and to what waters
in Maryland or Virginia such cargo of oysters is to be carried
Before such permit shall be granted the owner or master of
such boat or vessel shall take and subscribe to an oath before
said officer that the said boat or vessel will not be used for car-
rying said oysters to any State other than Maryland or Vir-
ginia, or for any other purpose than for planting the same in
the waters of one or the other of the said States, and that he
will not sell said oysters to any other person for the purpose of
carrying the same to any State other than Maryland or Vir-
ginia. The oath so taken and subscribed, together with a mem-
orandum of the permit issued, shall be returned by said officer
to the commander of the State Fishery Force of Maryland, if
said officer be a Maryland official, or to the secretary of the Com-
mission of Fisheries of Virginia, if said officer be a Virginia
official, to be filed by him in his office. Blank forms for such
oath and permit shall be furnished to the respective oyster in-
spectors, and the respective captains of the oyster police boats,
by the Comptroller of Maryland and the Auditor of Public
Accounts of Virginia, For administering said oath and issuing
said permit, the inspector or officer issuing same shall be en-
titled to receive from the applicant a fee of twenty-five cents.
The owner or master of any boat or vessel found carrying or
buying such seed oysters without such permit shall be fined not
less than twenty dollars nor more than one hundred dollars.
Any owner or master of any boat or vessel violating the pro-
visions of this section by buying or carrying or knowingly sell-
ing such seed oysters to be carried elsewhere, or for any other
purpose than to be planted in the waters of Maryland or Vir-
ginia, shall be fined not less than one hundred dollars nar more
than one thousand dollars, and in addition thereto the 'boat or
vessel so used shall, with its cargo and equipment, be forfeited
to the State wherein such offender is convicted; provided, no
permit shall be granted to any person engaged in taking or
catching, buying or carrying seed oysters or having in his
possession oysters measuring less than three inches from
hinge to mouth, who shall have any scoop, scrape or
dredge or any part thereof, on any boat or vessel to be used in
taking, buying or carrying seed oysters, and it shall be the duty
of the officer who issues said permit to first inspect said boat or
vessel and satisfy himself that no such appliance is on said boat