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no new arrests be made until the disputed waters were
marked and the matter decided. Governor Walker replied
that they were violators of the law, since they were found
below the temporary line.°' Governor Bowie, in a letter
to Governor Walker, set forth the complaint of citizens
of Somerset County, Maryland. A number of these peo-
ple had suffered, by the execution of Virginia, laws, for
taking oysters in Pocomoke Sound and River. Mary-
landers had been in the habit of fishing and oystering in
these waters from time immemorial, and now that Vir-
ginia disputed this right, they seemed threatened with
starvation. 112
So many depredators and trespassers were captured,
and their boats confiscated, that it became a serious affair,
and the Governor of Virginia in his message to the gen-
eral assembly in i87o, -called attention to the matter.
Resolutions were passed directing the Governor of Vir-
ginia to discharge from custody the citizens of Mary-
land arrested for violation of the laws of Virginia. The
Marylanders were released and their confiscations were
restored."
In the early part of x872, The Virginia Assembly
passed an act which set forth that "no persons, other than
a citizen of this state, shall catch terrapins or clams, catch,
take or plant oysters in the Rivers Pocomoke or Potomac,
-and any resident shall be deemed to have violated this
section-but this shall not extend to a citizen of Marv-
land taking oysters in the two above-named rivers, and
shall not be construed to give to citizens of Maryland
the right to catch, take or plant oysters in any creek, cove,
or inlet, tributary to said rivers. '
A similar provision was enacted by the Virginia Assem-
91 " Journal of Virginia House of Delegates," Dec. 19, 1869-70.
" Virginia House Journal and Documents," Doc. No. 6, p. i.
1870.
" Brief of R. T. Scott, Attorney General of Virginia. Wharton
v. Wise, 153 U. S. 155.
°" 11 Acts of Virginia Assembly," 1872, ch. 191.
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