Cite as: 521 U. S. 1 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
this habitat was only upland," Report 496. In addition, the Master noted that the original boundary of the Range was the high water mark along the Arctic Coast; the drafters changed the boundary to the extreme low water mark so as to include the tidelands within the Range. Ibid. The Master also found that the application reflected an intent to defeat Alaska's title, pointing out that the reservation was "meant to have permanent effect," not merely to hold whatever submerged lands were made part of the Range until Alaska's admission to the Union. Ibid.
The United States excepts to the Special Master's conclusion that the 1957 application and the Department of the Interior regulation, read together, did not have the effect of "setting apart" lands within the Range "as [a] refug[e] . . . for the protection of wildlife." Alaska defends the Master's conclusion concerning the legal effect of the application. Alaska also defends on alternative grounds the ultimate conclusion that submerged lands within the Range passed to Alaska, arguing that the United States did not clearly intend to include submerged lands within the Range and that the United States did not clearly intend to defeat Alaska's title to those lands. In essence, Alaska challenges the Master's conclusion that the 1957 application met the requirements of Montana and Utah Div. of State Lands—a conclusion appearing in a section of the Report to which it did not except. See Report 495-499. As will become clear, however, although the Master considered separately whether the application had the effect of "setting apart" lands within the Range within the meaning of § 6(e) and whether the requirements of Montana and Utah Div. of State Lands had been met, those inquiries overlap considerably. We therefore must address the application of Montana and Utah Div. of State Lands to this case.
A
As with the Reserve, the boundaries of the Range, as drawn by the Master, encompass both submerged lands be-
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