William More Gabb

William More Gabb (January 20, 1839 – May 30, 1878) was an American paleontologist, geologist, geographer, and ethnologist. He was elected in 1869 to the American Philosophical Society and in 1876 to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

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Quotes

To most persons who have never been in the tropics, the term presents a vision of tangled jungles, endless climbing vines, and waving palms. Few think of broad swelling prairies and smiling meadows as compatible with a landscape below the Cancer. But both exist in charming variety, not only in the favorite home of Columbus, but over much of our little known neighbor, the continent of South America.
- (1871) . "Article XVIII.—Notes on the distribution of the Vegetation of Santo Domingo". The American Journal of Science and Arts 102: 127–136. (quote from p. 127)

During the somewhat more than two years spent by me in Costa Rica, over eighteen months were devoted to the study of the region, known as Talamanca, about a sixth of the area of the Republic, and lying in its south east corner. In addition to this, I traversed the country, from ocean to ocean, several times between Limón and Punta Arenas, or Puntarenas; made an excursion into Nicoya and some lesser ones in the interiors, including visits to the two volcanoes of Irazú and Barva.
- On the Geology of Costa Rica. Manuscript in library of U.S. Geological Survey, 47 leaves, 7 plates. 1874. ; published as: Gabb, W. M. (2007) . "On the geology of the Republic of Costa Rica" 37: 103–118. (quote from p. 105; transcribed from the original manuscript by Oscar H. Lücke, Viviana Gutiérrez, & Geraldo Soto)

In Costa Rica the Heliconians frequent certain flowers, and pass over others of the same colour and same approximate size without noticing them. But the most marked case was of the large brilliant Morphos. My Indian servants always carried with them a fermented paste of maize flour, which they mixed with water to the consistency of gruel as a beverage. On our arriving at the side of a stream in a narrow gorge, invariably, within a few minutes after they opened a package of this paste, although there might not have been a butterfly in sight before, those most brilliant of their kind would come sailing up, always from leeward, and I have made some of my best catches in this manner. I have also caught them by baiting with a piece of over-ripe or even rotting banana. At other times they were almost unapproachable. They seem to live on fruits just merging into the state of rottenness.
- (1878) . "Sense in Insects—Drowned by a Devil-Fish". Nature 17 (432): 282.

In 1864 he was sent by Whitney to explore northern California and southeastern Oregon, leaving the northern end of Klamath Lake June 20 and continuing in the field until the middle of October. During this season one of the slate peaks, believed to be nearly 10,000 feet in height and situated in the northeastern angle of Fresno County, California, between the forks of the San Joaquin River, was named Mount Gabb by Whitney.
- William Healey Dall, (1900) . "Biographical Memoir of William More Gabb 1839–1878". Biographical Memoirs of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences VI: 347–361. (quote from pp. 352–353; read before the NAS on November 18, 1908)