358                                 Laws of Maryland                         [Ch. 269

ARTICLE VII. EFFECT ON EXISTING LAWS
AND PRIOR COMPACT

Section 1. Existing Rights. The rights, including the privilege
of erecting and maintaining wharves and other improvements, of the
citizens of each State along the shores of the Potomac River adjoin-
ing their lands shall be neither diminished, restricted, enlarged, in-
creased nor otherwise altered by this Compact, and the decisions of
the courts construing that portion of Article VII of the Compact of
1785 relating to the rights of riparian owners shall be given full force
and effect.

Section 2. Existing Laws. The laws of the State of Maryland
relating to finfish, crabs, oysters, and clams in the Potomac River, as
set forth in Article 66C of the Annotated Code of Maryland and as
in effect on December 1, 1958, shall be and remain applicable in the
Potomac River except to the extent changed, amended, or modified
by regulations of the Commission adopted in accordance with this
Compact.

Section 3. Existing Licenses. The rights and privileges of licen-
sees to take and catch finfish, crabs, oysters, clams, and other shellfish
in the Potomac River, which are in effect at the time this Compact be-
comes effective, shall continue in force subsequent to the adoption of
this Compact, subject to the power of the Commission, by regulation,
to modify or abolish any class of licenses or the rights of any particu-
lar class of licensees. FOR A PERIOD OF SIX MONTHS AT
WHICH TIME EVERY SUCH LICENSE AND EVERY SUCH
RIGHT AND PRIVILEGE SHALL BE ABROGATED.

ARTICLE VIII. EFFECT OF RATIFICATION

These articles shall be laid before the Legislatures of Virginia and
Maryland, and their approbation being obtained, shall be confirmed
and ratified by a law of each state, never to be repealed or altered by
either, without the consent of the other.

ARTICLE IX. EFFECTIVE DATE

This Compact, which takes the place of the Compact of 1785 be-
tween Maryland and Virginia, shall take effect at the expiration of
60 days after the completion of the last act legally necessary to make
it operative, and thereupon the said Compact of 1785 shall no longer
have any force or effect.

In Testimony Whereof, the Commissioners, on the part of the
State of Maryland and the Commonwealth of Virginia, evidence
their agreement to the provisions of this Compact by becoming
parties signatory this, the twentieth day of December, in the year
one thousand, nine hundred and fifty-eight, at Mount Vernon, in Vir-
ginia; and now witnesseth:

Commissioners on the                     Commissioners on the

Part of Maryland                            Part of Virginia

(s) Carlyle Barton                      (s) Mills E. Godwin, Jr.

(s) William J. McWilliams          (s) Howard H. Adams

(s) M. William Adelson              (s) Edward E. Lane

(s) Stephen R. Collins                (s) Robert Button

(s) Edward S. DeLaplaine            (s) John Warren Cooke