大众地质第一期出后,编者就收到天津市立三中高二乙第一小组的几位同学们的来信,他们提出了许多关于中国重要礦产资源如煤、石油、铁及特种矿产的储量和产量问题,他们的问题提得很尖锐:“我国的地下宝藏究竟实在情形如何,到现在还不十分清楚。譬如说中国现在到底有多少煤藏在地下,有多少已经开採,虽然看了不少书,但一本有一本的说法,数目字也相差很大;不看书还好,多看反倒令人糊涂了。……”接着就要我们回答一些有关矿产资源的数字。这情形是实在的,有些地理教科书从出版以后,其中统计数字从来没有修改过;而有些书籍因为出版时间不同,引用的数字也有新舊,而这些作者 After the first phase of mass geology, the editors received letters from the first group of students from the first group of the Tianjin No. 3 High School of the Second Middle School. They put forward many reserves of important mineral resources such as coal, petroleum, iron and special minerals in China. With regard to the issue of production, their questions were very sharp: “What is the actual situation of China’s underground treasure? It is still not very clear till now. For example, how much coal is now underground in China and how much has been mined? A lot of books, but one book has one book, the number of characters is also very different; if you don’t read books, it would be confusing to read more....” Then we must answer some of the figures on mineral resources. This situation is true. Since the publication of some geography textbooks, the statistics have never been revised; and because some books have different dates of publication, the numbers quoted are also old and new.