David Crowe, age 11, of Bridgeport, Conn., for his question:

Which is the world is largest lake?

A lake is defined as a stretch of water surrounded by land on all sides. There is nothing in this definition which says that the water must be fresh or salty. The largest lakes are indeed salt water lakes., and the largest of them all is the Caspian Sea.

This inland body of water covers an area almost 15 times larger than the state of Connecticut. Its surface is almost 170,000 square miles' which makes it about the same size as the state of California. The salty Caspian Sea is five tines larger than Lake Superior., the largest of our fresh water Great Lakes.