This was evident.

The displaced mud had not yet crusted, but looked damp and fresh.

It had been stirred within the hour.
Only one elephant had visited the pool that night.

There were many old tracks, but only one fresh spoor,--and that of an old and very large bull.
Of course the tracks told this much.

To make a spoor twenty-four inches long, requires the animal to be a very large one; and to be very large, he should be a bull, and an old one too.
Well, the older and larger the better, provided his tusks have not been broken by some accident.