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Opinion of Thomas, J.
(citing Alaska Exh. 81).6 The Government does not argue that the Refuge was "withdrawn" by the application within the meaning of § 6(e). See Brief for United States 41; Report 463. Rather, the application falls within § 6(e) because, we are told, the application "was the legal mechanism by which the Interior Department at that time 'set apart' public lands for the creation of a wildlife refuge." Brief for United States 41. Under the Department of the Interior's regulations in effect at the time, the effect of an application was to "temporarily segregate such lands from settlement, location, sale, selection, entry, lease, and other forms of disposal under the public land laws, . . . to the extent that the withdrawal or reservation applied for, if effected, would prevent such forms of disposal." 43 CFR § 295.11(a) (1958), 22 Fed. Reg. 6614 (1957). The regulation further provided that "[s]uch temporary segregation shall not affect the administrative jurisdiction over the segregated lands." Ibid.
The Master acknowledged the regulation's effect, but determined that, while it may have been to "set apart" the submerged lands within the Range, the lands were not "set apart as a refuge or reservation." Report 464 (emphasis in original). The majority disagrees, asserting that "[i]n the phrase 'set apart as [a] refug[e],' the word 'as' does not carry the requirement that the refuge be presently established." Ante, at 59. "[T]he phrase," concludes the majority, "aptly describes the administrative segregation of lands designated to become a wildlife refuge." Ibid.
I disagree. As the language of the Bureau of Sport Fish-eries and Wildlife's application made clear, at the time of the application (and at the time of statehood), no one could say with any certainty what lands—if any—included within the boundaries set forth in the application were at that time "designated to become a wildlife refuge." See Report 447,
6 The United States no longer contends that the application, of its own force, "expressly retained" submerged lands. See Brief for United States 29.
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