Dracula transports 50 boxes of consecrated—or sacred Transylvanian—earth to England.
The boxes are loaded aboard the Demeter and eventually brought to London, where Dracula intends to use them as resting places. In Bram Stoker’s vampire mythology, Dracula must lie in his native earth to recover his strength, making the shipment essential to his plan for establishing multiple safe lairs around London. The boxes also allow him to move between properties without relying on Castle Dracula.
Jonathan Harker and the other protagonists gradually reconstruct the shipment’s route through letters, diaries, shipping records, and testimony from the men who handled the cargo. The boxes are first associated with Whitby and then with Carfax, the derelict estate Dracula purchases near Dr. Seward’s asylum. The hunters find 29 boxes at Carfax and trace others to additional London properties.
The number is sometimes confused with the number eventually remaining after the hunters begin destroying or “sterilizing” the earth. Their objective is not merely to find 50 boxes, but to make every box unusable to Dracula by placing consecrated wafers inside. One final box remains in the chase back to Transylvania.