DUBOFKA, a burgh in European Russia, in the government of Saratoff, about 32∣ miles to the N.N.W. of Tsaritzin, on the right bank of the Volga, near its reception of the river Dubofka, and on the post-road to Astrakhan. With the exception of about 200, all its houses are built of wood; but among its public buildings it numbers four Greek churches, a prison, a large public school, and a hospital capable of containing several hundred patients. Besides leather, tallow, soap, and tobacco, its inhabitants manufacture mustard on a large scale, obtaining the seed partly from their own fields and partly from other districts. They had formerly a very extensive share in the transport trade between the Volga and the Don, which was largely carried on by means of oxen, and supported a number of auxiliary crafts; but the opening of the railway about 1860 struck a sudden and fatal blow at the whole traffic. A great fair, lasting for a whole month, is held in the town every year, and produces a circulation of about 1,000,000 rubles, or upwards of £141,000. Dubofka, already in existence at an earlier date, was colonized by Cossacks in 1743, and became their chief settlement on the Volga, the residence of their ataman, and the seat of their military chancery. In 1770 it was fortified with wooden ramparts by Falk. Having given its support to the insurrection of Pugacheff, it was punished by the removal of 517 of its inhabitants to the Caucasus, where they formed a separate polk, or regiment. Their place was supplied by immigrants from the neighbouring governments and the country of the Little Russians, who were soon led by the advantages of their position to devote themselves exclusively to trade. Population in 1873, 12,737.