When a kasgi is to be built, announcement is made through messengers to neighboring villages, and all gather to assist in the building and to help celebrate the event. First a trench several feet deep is dug in which to plant the timbers forming the sides. These are usually of driftwood, which is brought by the ocean currents from the Yukon. The ice breaks up first at the head of that great stream, and the debris dams up the river, which overflows its banks, tearing down trees, buildings and whatever borders its course as it breaks its way out to the sea. The wreckage is scattered along the coast for over a hundred miles, and the islands of Bering Sea get a small share. The islanders are constantly on the lookout for the drifting timber, and put out to sea in the stormiest weather for a distant piece, be it large or small. They also patrol the coast after a high tide for stray bits of wood. When one considers the toil and pain with which material is gathered, the building of a kasgi becomes an important matter. After the timbers have been rough hewn with the adze (ulimon) they are set upright in the trench to a height of seven to eight feet and firmly bedded with rock. This is to prevent the fierce Polar winds which prevail in midwinter from tearing the houses to pieces. In the older buildings a protecting stone wall was built on the sides. Most of the houses are set in a side hill, or partly underground, for additional security, as well as for warmth. The roof is laid on top of the uprights, the logs being drawn in gradually in pyramid shape to a flat top. In the middle of the top is the [.r]alok or smoke hole, an opening about two feet square. In a kasgi thirty feet square the ralok is twenty feet above the floor. It is covered with a translucent curtain of walrus gut. The dead are always taken out through this opening, and never by the entrance. The most important feature of the room is the in['g]lak, a wide shelf supported by posts at intervals. It stands about five feet high extending around the room. This serves the double purpose of a seat and bed for the inmates of the kasgi. The rear, the kaan, is the most desirable position, being the warmest, and is given to headmen and honored guests.[5] The side portions, kaaklim, are given to the lesser lights and the women and children; and the front, the oaklim, being nearest the entrance and therefore cold and uncomfortable is left for the orphans and worthless men. [5] The order of the seating on the in['g]lak of invited guests is a matter of great concern to the Eskimo, as it is an indication of worth. Children purchase their right to a seat in the kasgi by making presents, through their parents, to all the inmates, kasgimiut. Until they do so they have no right to enter. For the same reason strangers on entering the kasgi offer a small present to the headman, who divides it among the people.