<P> James Bartley (1870--1909) is the central figure in a late nineteenth - century story according to which he was swallowed whole by a sperm whale . He was found days later in the stomach of the whale, which was dead from constipation . </P> <P> The story originated of an anonymous firm, began to appear in American newspapers . Apparently the anonymous article started in the St. Louis Globe Democrat of Saint Louis, Missouri . And then the note started to come out in newspapers as "A Modern Jonah" The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, July 2 1891 (Wheeling, W. Va .) </P>

Who lived in the belly of a whale