Mountain regions occupy vast areas in many parts of the world and contain enormous wealth in the form of mineral resources, hydropower potential, and forests. However, despite the high level of modern technology, the development of mountainous areas continues to encounter considerable difficulties. Historical experience has shown that intermontane basins are the most favorable locations for development within mountain regions. They possess relatively extensive flat terrain and generally enjoy a drier and warmer climate than the surrounding mountain slopes. Flat relief facilitates construction, road building, and agricultural development; greater heat resources make it possible to obtain high yields of thermophilic crops; and the concentration of runoff simplifies the organization of water-supply systems. For these reasons, intermontane basins, especially those located in warm natural zones, have long been inhabited and utilized by humans. In desert and semi-desert regions, many basins have become major agricultural centers because rivers descending from surrounding slopes make water supply relatively easy to organize, as exemplified by the Fergana Basin. In mountainous steppe and forest-steppe regions, the land resources of intermontane basins and mineral deposits associated with tectonic depressions and long-term sedimentary processes, such as the hard coal and lignite deposits of the Kansk and Kuznetsk basins, have often been developed almost simultaneously. In the mountain taiga regions, interest in intermontane basins initially arose for similar reasons, namely their broader agricultural potential, as seen in the Upper Angara Basin, the Muya Basin, and the Amaringa intermontane depression. However, large-scale development became possible only in those basins where not only natural conditions but also the economic-geographical environment, such as proximity to mining enterprises, favored concentrated settlement and exploitation. At present, the development of most mountain taiga regions of Siberia, a considerable portion of which belongs to the Near North according to a combination of economic-geographical characteristics (Slovin, 1961), is characterized by the exploitation of new, large-scale primary industrial resources, including mineral deposits and hydropower potential (Pokshishevsky, 1960). In this process, developers frequently encounter situations where mineral deposits are located on steep mountain slopes or within narrow gorges. Under such conditions it is difficult to find suitable sites for modern concentrating plants, industrial enterprises, workers’ settlements, and agricultural support bases. Consequently, attention has increasingly shifted to nearby intermontane basins. The tendency for small industrial centers and mining-related settlements to gravitate toward intermontane basins is also clearly evident in mountainous regions of Canada (British Columbia, 1956) and the United States, particularly Alaska. The widespread occurrence of intermontane basins is likewise a distinctive feature of Transbaikalia, especially within the taiga and goltsy-dominated Stanovoy Highlands (Fig. 1). As in many other mountain regions, the large basins, namely the Upper Angara, Muya, and Chara basins, were settled and developed first because they offered more favorable conditions for agriculture. Agricultural development, in turn, was closely connected with the exploitation of gold deposits in the Barguzin and Lena taiga regions. Consequently, the large basins of the highlands have been studied much more thoroughly than the smaller ones, although even they remain far from completely investigated. Existing studies have shown that, in addition to possessing features common to all intermontane basins, small basins exhibit a number of specific characteristics. These generally include thinner unconsolidated sedimentary deposits, lower activity of certain accumulation processes, and a variety of climatic and other distinctive traits (Alexandrova, 1963). In recent years, economically significant mineral resources have been discovered in the Stanovoy Highlands. This has naturally raised the issue of construction in the vicinity of mineral deposits. It is extremely difficult to find adequate construction sites within deeply dissected steep-sloped terrain and narrow glacial valleys. Large basins are often located dozens of kilometers from the deposits. In contrast, the numerous small basins scattered throughout the highlands, usually situated relatively close to mineral occurrences, have begun to attract particular attention from exploration specialists and planners. Thus, the study of the natural characteristics of small basins within the highlands has considerable practical importance. Although progress has been achieved in geological, and to a lesser extent climatic, studies of intermontane basins, most basins and mountain regions remain insufficiently investigated. At the same time, mineral-resource development is proceeding rapidly, creating a need for preliminary scientific surveys to be completed within short timeframes. Accordingly, these circumstances necessitate increased attention to methodological issues associated with integrated studies of natural-environment complexes. One of the most promising methods for physical-geographical investigations during the pre-planning and design stage is landscape (natural-complex) mapping. Another important direction is the extensive application of quantitative characteristics and quantitative methods of data analysis in response to practical needs. These two approaches are not isolated from one another, nor from other research methods. This circumstance prompted us, while conducting experimental medium-scale mapping and investigation of natural complexes in a middle-mountain taiga region, to address a number of fundamental methodological questions in physical geography. Of particular importance is the relationship among comparative methods, cartographic methods, quantitative methods, and the transect approach. The study area consists of small intermontane basins of practical significance located within the basin of the Katal River, a right-bank tributary of the Vitim River in the Kalarsky District of Chita Oblast. Coal deposits (Kontsevets, 1958) and occurrences of titanomagnetite mineralization (Lebedev, 1962) are known in the Upper Kalar Basin. The Middle Kalar Basin contains land suitable for cultivation, and its substantial heat resources are favorable for agricultural development. Coal deposits have also been identified there (Kariev et al., 1959). This work is based on field materials collected during investigations conducted from July to August 1961 by the Physical Geography Expedition of the Transbaikal Research Institute of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Geography of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In addition to the author, the expedition included collectors M. Kongar, V. Budnev, and V. Rumyantsev, as well as reindeer herders N. Ulvanov, P. Gabesheva, and A. Kirpiyalov from the “Zarya” collective farm. Data obtained by the Physical Geography Expedition of the Institute of Geography in 1957, conducted by researchers V. S. Preobrazhensky and L. I. Mukhina, were also utilized.