Paddlers at about the time of 1830 were averaging 15 miles an hour on regular runs, carried about 20 pounds boiler pressure, and turned their paddles at 20 to 25 times a minute. They still burned wood, though coal had been tried, and used about thirty cords for the one hundred and fifty miles between New York and Albany. Passenger fare on an elegant boat, having a bar and a ladies' cabin and perhaps a band of music which helped the "novelist to become delighted with the various scenes of nature and art and the philsopher to contemplation", was about $3.00 or two cents a mile. Meals were extra and included the Steamboat Pudding which was a different concoction on every line. Cheaper boats carried for as little as a dollar a head, with proportionate charges between way landings. A flag or a lusty halloo hailed the smaller boats but the large 'packets' made only regular advertised stops.

From: LANE, Carl D. American Paddle Steamboats (New York: Coward-McCann, Inc., 1943) pp 10-11.